Islam Makhachev Challenges UFC History with 17 Consecutive Wins
Islam Makhachev isn’t backing down from history. He’s challenging it.
Fresh off setting a new mark for consecutive UFC wins, the lightweight king has drawn a line through one of the sport’s sacred numbers – and, by extension, one of its most revered names.
Makhachev’s record, Jones’ shadow
Makhachev (29-1 MMA, 18-1 UFC) pushed his winning streak under the UFC banner to 17 in August, when he defended his welterweight title against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330. That victory nudged him past Anderson Silva’s long-standing record of 16 straight wins, a benchmark that had survived more than a decade of title fights, highlight-reel knockouts, and failed attempts to touch it.
On paper, it looks clear. In the record books, it is.
But the debate never really ends there in MMA, and Jon Jones’ name inevitably crashes the party.
Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) has gone 20 consecutive bouts without a loss since December 2009. The run includes a stretch of dominance at light heavyweight and a successful move to heavyweight. The one blemish in that span is not a defeat, but a no contest: his July 2017 rematch with Daniel Cormier at UFC 214, originally a knockout win before the result was overturned due to a failed drug test.
To many, that 20-fight unbeaten stretch represents the “real” high-water mark. To Makhachev, it doesn’t.
“That’s where a new count should have started”
Speaking to Ushatayka in Russian, Makhachev acknowledged Jones’ stature, but then cut straight to the heart of his argument.
"I'm not denying that Jon Jones is one of the greatest athletes in history," Makhachev said. "But he was caught doping twice, and I think that's why his streak isn't considered valid.
"Because he went into a fight while on PEDs and won. That's where a new count should have started."
No soft edges there. For Makhachev, performance-enhancing drug violations don’t just stain a legacy; they reset the clock. If you step into the cage on banned substances and win, he argues, the streak that follows cannot simply be merged into one seamless run.
It’s a direct shot at the way Jones’ record is often framed – and at the way greatness is measured in a sport where anti-doping violations have repeatedly collided with championship careers.
The hypocrisy charge waiting in the wings
Makhachev knows, or will soon be reminded, that this cuts both ways.
Critics will point immediately to his own anti-doping history. In 2016, Makhachev failed a test under the UFC’s anti-doping program, a mark that has followed him even as his star has risen. That context turns any accusation about another fighter’s drug record into a loaded statement.
Yet his camp has long maintained that the result was a mistake, and the UFC’s own anti-doping chief has since publicly backed that position. In May 2024, when Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s senior vice president of anti-doping compliance, presented Makhachev with a jacket for reaching 50 clean tests in the program, he called the 2016 result “one of the greatest, colossal mistakes in anti-doping.”
Those are powerful words from the man charged with policing the system. They don’t erase the original failure from the public record, but they do add weight to Makhachev’s insistence that his name belongs on the clean side of the ledger.
That tension – Jones’ repeated run-ins with testing versus Makhachev’s single, officially discredited case – sits at the core of this brewing argument over whose streak truly stands tallest.
What comes after 17?
Beyond the numbers and the history lessons, Makhachev’s focus remains on the cage. After dispatching Garry to defend his 170-pound belt at UFC 330, he made it clear he doesn’t intend to sit on the record and admire it.
He wants back in quickly.
Makhachev is targeting a return in January, or even earlier, depending on the outcome of recent MRI scans on potential injuries. If those results come back clean, the man who just broke one of the UFC’s most enduring records will be chasing another win, another defense, another layer to a résumé he clearly believes should stand apart from any cloud of suspicion.
The debate over Jones, doping, and what truly counts as a streak will rage on. Makhachev’s answer is simple: keep winning, keep testing clean, and force the sport to decide which version of history it wants to remember.
