If Islam Makhachev thought nobody wanted to fight him before, it sure isn’t about to get better.
In the UFC on ESPN 26 headliner on Saturday, Makhachev pressured, pummeled and mauled Thiago Moises for three rounds and change before choking him out in the fourth. While the dominant victory was perhaps no more than expected of an 8-to-1 favorite, the optics told a bleak story for any future opponents of the 29-year-old Dagestani. Faced with a powerful striker and elite submission artist in Moises, Makhachev absorbed next to no hard strikes after the first round, grounded the Brazilian at will and won every ground exchange.