Who should Islam Makhachev fight next? The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) superstar has just won the Bloody Elbow fan vote by a landslide, but the question remains: who should he face next? With a new welterweight title under his belt, Makhachev is now the eleventh two-division champion in the promotion's history. However, the focus has already shifted to his next move. Makhachev wants to face Kamaru Usman in 2026, but fans have other ideas. In a recent poll, 40% of readers voted for a showdown between Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, a highly anticipated super-fight. The Kazakh fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov, who hasn't competed in almost a year, came in second with 20.24% of the vote. Meanwhile, Carlos Prates, who suffered a KO loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 322, finished at the bottom of the pile with less than 5%. The debate over who Makhachev should defend his title against next is far from over, and fans are already getting involved in the next Bloody Elbow poll. The pound-for-pound discussion, which has returned to the surface after Makhachev's recent win, is a topic that continues to divide opinion. With Topuria's ascent, the debate now centers around whether Makhachev should regain the top spot, whether Topuria should hold on to it, or if others like Khamzat Chimaev and Merab Dvalishvili have earned their way to the throne. The UFC president Dana White initially insisted that Jon Jones deserved the top spot, but eventually conceded that Makhachev was the true No. 1. Now, the question remains: who should Makhachev fight next, and will it be a showdown with Usman, a clash with Topuria, or something else entirely?
