Are Islam Makhachev and Jon Jones treated differently by the MMA world? Daniel Cormier believes so and explains stance

Islam Makhachev and Jon Jones are the two greatest fighters in the world. However, the Dagestani champion seems to be facing different treatment compared to Jones. This drew the attention of UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, who chimed in during a recent sitdown with Chael Sonnen.

It all boiled down to Cormier taking exception to the MMA fandom calling for Makhachev to be stripped of his UFC lightweight title due to his reluctance to fight Ilia Topuria. However, 'DC' claims that 'Bones' was not subjected to similar criticism despite only defending his title once, during which time Makhachev scored four. He said:

"You know what's annoying to me is Islam Makahchev has said, 'I don't wanna really fight Ilia Topuria because he's a 45-pounder, and I've done that. Give me somebody else.' People are like, 'Take the belt off of him. He should be stripped.' I've seen reports, I don't know that these are true, where they're like, 'It's either strip or defend,' for Makhachev. Why? Why?!"

At this point, Cormier argued in favor of Makhachev being given more grace.

"He has fought, in the last two years, he fought [Alexander] Volk[anovski], he fought Dustin [Poirier], he fought Volk again, he fought against... what's the guy's name that just... what's the guy's name? [Renato] Moicano. He fought Moicano. He fought them all! Like, he's fought four times, in the amount of time that the heavyweight champ fought once."

Check out Daniel Cormier's comments about Islam Makhachev below (17:48):

While Cormier is right to point out Makhachev's activity, it isn't as though there haven't been calls for Jones to be stripped due to his well-known reluctance to face Tom Aspinall. Regardless, it is up to the UFC to resolve its muddy title picture at both lightweight and heavyweight.

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Islam Makhachev is rumored to fight at UFC 317

Rumors that Islam Makhachev will ultimately defend his lightweight title against Ilia Topuria at UFC 317 persist. They first arose when the Topuriae revealed that he has started his training camp after making it clear he won't fight anyone but Makhachev. Now, he has revealed that his fight date is June 28.

June 28, for context, is the date for UFC 317. While the promotion has not made any official announcement, all signs point to the highly anticipated Makhachev vs. Topuria bout.