PHILADELPHIA — Islam Makhachev walked out of Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday night as the UFC's all-time consecutive wins leader. Now 29-1 overall, the 34-year-old Dagestani defeated Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 to extend his streak to 17, moving past the mark Anderson Silva built between June 2006 and Oct. 2012.
All three judges scored the 170-pound welterweight title bout in Makhachev's favor. Two cards came in at 49-46 and one at 48-47, reflecting a fight that was competitive throughout but never seriously in doubt in the final round.
Silva's mark of 16 consecutive UFC wins had stood for more than 13 years. The longtime middleweight champion built that streak across six-plus years as the undisputed best fighter on the planet. Makhachev began his own streak in September 2016 and has not looked back since.
"Ian is a great fighter, a good man, and I respect him," Makhachev said after the fight. "He gave me a hard time, but I still prove it every fight."
Garry, who entered at 17-2, gave Makhachev real problems with his size and height advantage throughout the contest. UFC Stats recorded seven takedowns for Makhachev, but Garry repeatedly worked to the fence and returned to his feet. Garry also landed short shots in the clinch, particularly in the fourth round, and spent portions of the fight making Makhachev burn energy to maintain position rather than finish.
The third round was Garry's best. The Irishman landed multiple body kicks, threatened with heavy head kick attempts and stuffed several takedown efforts to keep the fight on the feet. He started to open up offensively in a way he had not in the first two rounds.
The second round belonged to Makhachev. A head kick knockdown in that frame proved decisive on the scorecards and demonstrated that the Dagestani is not a one-dimensional wrestler. It was one of the defining moments judges pointed to in awarding him the two wider 49-46 scores.
The fifth round settled any remaining debate. Makhachev shot into Garry's legs inside the first 90 seconds and refused to surrender separation. When Garry momentarily returned to his feet, Makhachev put him back down, ending the fight with Garry locked in a body triangle as the clock expired. It was the kind of grinding, suffocating final round that has defined the champion's career.
UFC president Dana White praised Makhachev's performance but suggested Garry left something on the table in the closing minutes. "I felt like tonight was set up for the upset, I felt like the upset could happen tonight," White said. "With so much on the line, all the records Islam has and he's going to break Anderson's record. I think Ian is a talented guy, and if he had even an ounce of killer instinct in that fifth round" — White's remarks trailed off there, but the implication was clear: Garry fought not to lose rather than to win when it mattered most.
The victory also makes Makhachev only the fifth two-division UFC champion to earn successful title defenses in both divisions. He claimed the lightweight championship first, then moved up to welterweight last November in pursuit of a second belt. The welterweight move raised questions coming in — Makhachev had spent his entire career at 155 pounds, and Garry's combination of size, reach and striking was designed to expose gaps in his game at the new weight. Those gaps never materialized decisively.
Makhachev is a longtime training partner of retired lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, whose influence on the Dagestani school of wrestling-based MMA runs through every minute of Makhachev's fights. Khabib held the lightweight record for consecutive wins before Makhachev extended the family legacy past Silva's all-time mark.
At 34, Makhachev now sits alone at the top of the UFC's all-time consecutive wins list and retains the pound-for-pound No. 1 ranking. Saturday night in Philadelphia, he placed himself in a conversation that, just a few years ago, seemed reserved for Silva and Georges St-Pierre.
