For a long time, Khabib Nurmagomedov dominated in the lightweight division, but after he announced his retirement, the competition level in this weight category increased a lot.
Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira shared the octagon for the vacated title, while Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor were fighting for the 3rd time.
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Charles Oliveira earned the title by defeating Chandler in the second round via TKO, but it was not an easy fight and an easy journey for Brazilians.
Oliveira has been a member of the UFC since 2010, and he started his UFC career in the featherweight division. However, after moving up, suffering, and witnessing losses and victories, he found his place in the promotion. For this moment, he is on 9 winning streaks, and his last 3 victories are the most notable. He defeated wrestler Kevin Lee in the 3rd round via submission guillotine choke, absolutely dominated against Tony Ferguson, and managed to come back in the second round of the title fight against Chandler and earned the GOLD of the UFC.
The next title challenger will be Dustin Poirier, who will try his second shot on December 12. Dustin is a former interim lightweight champion. He suffered defeat against Khabib Nurmagomedov when he fought for the undisputed title, but after that defeat, he earned 1 victory against Dan Hooker in a 5-rounder war and 2 victories in a row against Conor McGregor.
This lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier is one of the most highly anticipated fights.
The next title challenger in the division will be another former interim lightweight champion, Justin Gaethje. Justin earned the interim belt against Tony Ferguson but suffered a loss against Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, he came back after that loss and faced former title challenger Michael Chandler and earned UD victory in a 3-rounder war. As his manager, Ali Abdelaziz said Gaethje is the next title challenger.
Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush are the #3 and #4 ranked contenders and will most likely share the octagon. The winner of this fight will be the N3 title challenger on the list, however first is Poirier, second Gaethje. After Justin, there should be the winner between Makhachev and Dariush, because Makhachev has 9 winning streaks in the UFC and Dariush is on 7 winning streaks, and remains as the #3 ranked contender after defeating Tony Ferguson.
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Chandler is the #5 ranked for this moment and is looking for the opponent. In the UFC, his record is 1-2, he only defeated Dan Hooker and suffered 2 losses, but he still is at the top of the division. Rafael Dos Anjos and Tony Ferguson are waiting for the next rivals, too, but they are already old, and there is a really low probability that they will be at the top of the division once again.
The #9 ranked is a former double champion, Conor McGregor, after suffering 2 losses in a row. Still, he will be #8 soon because Dan Hooker announced that he plans to change weight category and move down to the featherweight division after suffering 3 losses in his previous 4 bouts.
Inside the top15, there are 3 excellent prospects, Brad Ridell, Rafael Fiziev, and Arman Tsarukyan.
Tsarukyan suffered only a loss in his debut in the UFC against Islam Makhachev, but he offered very close wrestling exchanges. However, after that loss, he earned 4 victories, and the last appearance was via brutal KO because he said he knew he needed a statement in the promotion, and he really made one. 25 years old Armenian fighter is training in the American Top Team and has excellent sparring partners to prepare for the best of the promotion. Rafael Fiziev suffered a loss in his debut, just like Armenian, and earned 4 victories after that. His next battle will be against Brad Ridell, whose record is 4-0 inside the octagon and remains as the #12 ranked lightweight in the UFC.
Rafael Fiziev suffered a loss in his debut, just like Armenian, and earned 4 victories after that. His next battle will be against Brad Ridell, whose record is 4-0 inside the octagon and remains as the #12 ranked lightweight in the UFC.
Outside of the top 15, a former KSW double champion earned 2 victories in the UFC after suffering a split decision loss in a very close battle against Georgian Viking Guram Kutateladze. Gamrot is an amazing wrestler, but he has great striking abilities, too. However, Polish fans see Gamrot as the next UFC champion.
Guram Kutateladze held only 1 fight in the UFC, but he defeated Gamrot in that debut, whose record by that time was 17-0. Kutateladze is a Black belt in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. Also, he is a very experienced Karate fighter and professional Kickboxer. He is UFC’s rising star, Khamzat Chimaev’s very close friend and sparring partner, and as Chimaev said, Guram is the only guy who can compete with him during the sparrings.
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