Islam Makhachev wants to become a double champion. After ending (at least for the near future) featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski‘s aspirations by knocking him out in devastating fashion at their UFC 294 clash, the Dagestani may just get the chance to do that, depending upon the result of the UFC 296 main event.

Colby Covington will take on champion Leon Edwards in the latter’s first title defense against a fighter not named Kamaru Usman. Covington has spoken about wanting to fight Makhachev if he wins at UFC 296, and Chael Sonnen thinks that is a very intriguing matchup.

Chael Sonnen on what makes potential Makhachev-Covington bout compelling

On his YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen began by discussing a poll he had created on his YouTube channel asking who the audience thinks will win a potential welterweight bout between Colby Covington and Islam Makhachev. ‘The Bad Guy’ stated that the poll was a dead heat with fifty percent of the respondents voting for Colby to win and the other fifty percent for Islam Makhachev.

This poll, Sonnen felt, was another indication of how compelling this potential matchup was. Another intriguing element is that usually, the bigger fighter is the favorite when facing someone moving up in weight class. However, he felt that this may not hold in the case of Makhachev, who Sonnen felt was a very scary challenge, having dominated most of his opponents.

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“That is a very compelling match and every time we close our eyes and we attempt to envision, we do generally give a disadvantage to the lighter guy coming up because, in our mind’s eye, he’s always just too small. We think about his power, we think about somebody he hit. And we think, ‘oh but this bigger guy could take him,” ‘Uncle Chael’ noted.

“It’s very difficult for us psychologically to understand that that’s going to change. The power is going up, things are going to change… But you gotta see both sides of it,” he added. And if Covington, who fought and lost to Usman twice for the title, finally manages to become champion, we are likely to see Covington vs. Makhachev sometime next year, probably after the Dagestani rematches Charles Oliveira. Sonnen thinks the reason behind Covington calling out Makhachev is a nefarious scheme on the American’s part to deny a title shot to a welterweight fighter due to a personal vendetta against him.

Sonnen thinks ‘Chaos’ wants to fight Makhachev to stick it to Belal Muhammad

A few days ago, Sonnen spoke about the potential motivations behind Covington calling out Makhachev. The Oregonian felt that more than anything else, the American had done this to spite #2 ranked welterweight Belal Muhammad, who has a strong case for fighting the winner of Covington vs. Edwards.

Leon Edwards Should Not Go for UFC MW Title Just Yet After Colby Covington Fight at UFC 296

Muhammad had fought and defeated Gilbert Burns in their UFC 288 co-main event bout in May this year. Before and after that fight, the Palestinian had spoken repeatedly about him deserving to fight for the title next, and that Covington’s title shot made “no sense”. Sonnen opined that this had soured ‘Chaos’ who wanted to make sure Muhammad does not fight for the title next if he can defeat Edwards at UFC 296.

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