Islam Makhachev's Intriguing Interest in a Boxing Match with Conor McGregor

Islam Makhachev has cleaned out a division, conquered pound-for-pound lists, and strangled elite lightweights into reluctant submission. Yet the challenge now tugging at his curiosity doesn’t come with a cage, a canvas logo, or the threat of a takedown.

It comes with ropes. And Conor McGregor.

The UFC welterweight champion has admitted he’s genuinely intrigued by the idea of swapping 4-ounce gloves for 10s and meeting McGregor in a boxing ring. Not for a title. Not for legacy. Just for the fight.

“I’d box Conor regardless of the purse,” Makhachev told Ushatayka, laying out his interest without the usual negotiation dance. He didn’t bother dressing it up. In his mind, the matchup is simple: survive an early storm, then dominate.

“Yes maybe he’s dangerous in the first round, but after that I don’t think he has any chance,” Makhachev said.

That’s the heart of it. McGregor, the sport’s biggest star, still carries the aura of a man who can end a night with a single left hand. But he’s also a fighter coming off multiple losses, far removed from the ruthless finisher who tore through featherweights and snatched two belts. In MMA terms, a shot at Makhachev’s welterweight crown isn’t on the horizon.

Boxing, though, lives by different rules. Different politics. Different fantasies.

A Makhachev–McGregor fight inside a ring would give UFC president Dana White something he has always understood better than most: spectacle. On one side, the most dominant MMA fighter on the planet right now. On the other, the man who turned cage fighting into global pop culture. That alone sells.

The matchup flips the script that has followed Makhachev’s career. In the Octagon, his elite grappling suffocates opponents before they can even think about a Plan B. Against McGregor in MMA, almost every analyst would lean heavily toward the champion. McGregor would have to survive the clinch, the trips, the chain wrestling, the top control. It’s a grim equation.

Take all that away, though, and the risk profile shifts. No takedowns to worry about. No scrambles. No fence wrestling. Just hands, timing, and nerve.

McGregor has already gone ten rounds with Floyd Mayweather in a boxing ring, proving at least that he can operate in that world long enough to be dangerous. His left hand remains his calling card, and in a pure striking contest, he always carries what fighters call a puncher’s chance — that single, clean shot that can flip a fight on its head.

Makhachev isn’t known primarily as a striker, but that label undersells him. His stand-up has grown sharp, efficient, and composed. He doesn’t brawl. He picks his entries, manages distance, and punishes mistakes. He believes those tools, combined with his conditioning and composure, would be more than enough to deal with McGregor in a boxing setting once the early danger passes.

Would It Happen?

The real question sits outside the ring: would White actually book it?

For now, it lives in the realm of fantasy matchmaking. Zuffa Boxing has long been floated as a vehicle for crossover fights, and a clash between the best active MMA fighter and the sport’s most famous star fits that mold perfectly. The business upside is obvious. The logistics, less so.

There’s also the reality that both men still exist under the UFC umbrella, with all the contractual and promotional control that implies. Makhachev’s path, at least on paper, runs through more title defenses and more contenders. McGregor’s road back, if it happens, likely starts with proving he can win again in the cage.

So the odds say this never happens — not in MMA, not in boxing. Too many moving parts. Too many risks. Too much that can go wrong for too many powerful people.

But Makhachev has said the quiet part out loud: he wants it, and he doesn’t need a record-breaking purse to chase it.

When a dominant champion starts looking beyond his own sport’s boundaries and calling out the biggest name of the last decade, the question isn’t just whether the fight can be made.

It’s how long combat sports can resist the pull of a spectacle like that.