Chael Sonnen on Islam’s plans to switch categories: “He has the same problem as Khabib”

Chael Sonnen on Islam Makhachev’s plans to switch weight categories, according to the American the UFC champion has the same problem that led Khabib to retirement.

Islam Makhachev recently mentioned possible starts in the middleweight and light heavyweight categories. The Dagestanian frankly stated that he was ready to fight Dricus Du Plessis, and later joked that if he were to fight Alex Pereira he would have to go on the diet used by Daniel Cormier.

Of course, the UFC champion has also spoken more than once about fighting in the welterweight division, where the Dagestan believes he could anchor for the long term for the sake of many interesting rivals. The current champion of the up to 77 kilograms category is Belal Muhammad.

Chael Sonnen has commented on Islam Makhachev’s plans to switch weight categories. According to the veteran, the champion of the UFC lightweight organization is simply looking for a way out of his current division.

– Islam talks about Pereira at welterweight, he talks about Dricus at middleweight. It’s strange and no one takes it seriously, but he has to do it because his friend holds the welterweight belt. It’s their code of honor. We simply won’t see Islam fight Belal. But what Islam wants most, and the main reason he’s talking about it at all, is not new challenges, it’s not the status of a double champion. He is looking for a way out of his weight category.

Chael Sonnen referred to the case of Khabib Nurmagomedov, recognizing it as similar to what is currently happening with Islam Makhachev. The American said that the undefeated Khabib would have continued his career if at some point he had received a suitable offer to fight in the welterweight division.

– Islam’s biggest problem is the same problem that defeated his mentor twice and ultimately led to his retirement – Khabib didn’t retire because he didn’t want to fight Conor McGregor a second time. The UFC showed him the wrong numbers. They showed him more and more zeros on his contract. That wasn’t the point. If they had shown him a weight of 170 pounds, Khabib would have been tempted to fight one more time. The same problem now stands in Islam’s way.

According to the former UFC title challenger, weight gain is the most common reason by which fighters decide to end their careers prematurely.

– The number 1 reason every fighter in combat sports leaves is because they don’t want to make the weight anymore. They don’t want to fight the weight. It’s the whole 24/7 process of cutting calories to beat the damn weight.