Islam Makhachev Targets Boxing Showdown with Conor McGregor
Islam Makhachev has conquered almost everything that matters in MMA. Now he’s looking at a different world, with smaller gloves replaced by bigger ones and the cage traded for ropes.
The UFC welterweight champion and current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter has openly admitted he’s intrigued by a boxing showdown with Conor McGregor — the sport’s most bankable star, even as his results have dipped.
On paper, it’s a strange time to talk about it. McGregor is coming off multiple losses and sits miles away from a UFC welterweight title shot. Inside the Octagon, that matchup makes little sense right now.
But step out of MMA and into boxing, and the picture changes.
“Regardless of the purse”
Speaking to Ushatayka, Makhachev didn’t dance around the idea. He wants McGregor in a ring, not just a cage, and he’s confident about what would happen there.
According to Makhachev, he believes he would dominate McGregor under boxing rules and insists the payday wouldn’t be the driving force.
“Yes maybe he’s dangerous in the first round, but after that I don’t think he has any chance. Honestly, regardless of the purse I’d box (Conor),” Makhachev said.
That’s not a callout built on financial fantasy. It’s a champion convinced that even in a discipline tailored more to McGregor’s strengths, he would still “wipe the floor” with him.
A promoter’s dream… on paper
The obvious question lands at the feet of UFC president Dana White.
Makhachev vs. McGregor in the UFC? Hard to justify right now. But under a Zuffa Boxing banner, the calculus shifts. White would be selling a clash between the sport’s best active fighter and its biggest-ever draw. That kind of billing sells itself.
In MMA, the script feels almost pre-written: Makhachev’s elite grappling against a McGregor who has long struggled with top-tier wrestlers. Most would pick the champion without hesitation.
Boxing rips that script up.
No takedowns. No clinch wrestling. No ground control. McGregor can focus entirely on what made him a star in the first place: timing, precision, and that left hand he’s always called a “death shot.”
Power vs. poise
Makhachev isn’t primarily known as a striker, but that undersells him. His stand-up has grown sharp, efficient, and disciplined. He doesn’t need to be a pure boxer to compete; he just needs to be good enough to neutralize the early storm and let his conditioning and composure take over.
McGregor, even at this stage, carries the kind of power that changes fights in a heartbeat. In a boxing match, that gives him a genuine puncher’s chance. One clean shot can flip everything.
That’s where the intrigue lives: the pound-for-pound king stepping into a realm tailored to his rival’s best weapon, confident he can still walk him down and break him. The fading superstar betting that, stripped of takedowns and grappling, he can turn back time for one more spectacular night.
Fantasy or future?
The odds say this matchup never happens — not in MMA, not in boxing. Too many moving parts, too many contractual and promotional hurdles, too many risks for a champion who already owns the sport he’s in.
But Makhachev’s interest cracks the door open, even slightly. And once a fight like this enters the public imagination, it tends to linger.
If the best fighter in the world really wants the biggest star in the world under boxing rules, how long can the sport ignore it?
