Islam Makhachev's Future Challenge: Boxing Match with Conor McGregor

Islam Makhachev walked out of UFC 330 with his welterweight title intact and a 17th straight win on his record. He didn’t walk out unscathed.

The champion absorbed enough damage against Ian Garry to head straight for a battery of MRI scans, and doctors are now zeroing in on lingering spinal issues that need attention before he even thinks about another camp. Carlos Prates waits. Michael Morales waits. The division is stacked with fresh problems for the Dagestani when he returns.

But the most intriguing challenge on his horizon might not involve 4-ounce gloves at all.

A Saudi pitch, an Irish wildcard

At the Zuffa 9 boxing event in August, Makhachev found himself in an unfamiliar setting: ringside, not cageside, surrounded by boxing royalty and big-money power brokers. One of them, Turki Alalshikh, went a step further than small talk.

He put Conor McGregor on a video call.

Somewhere between the pleasantries and the spectacle, the idea landed on the table: Makhachev vs. McGregor in a boxing ring. Not as a fantasy matchup, but as a genuine possibility.

Makhachev hasn’t backed away from it since. If anything, he’s leaned in.

During a recent interview with Ushatayka, the reigning welterweight king spoke with the quiet certainty of a man who believes his game has outgrown the old labels. Wrestler. Grappler. Clinch monster. Those tags no longer tell the full story.

Asked how dangerous McGregor would be in pure boxing, especially after his ACL and meniscus surgery and the long list of injuries that have blunted his prime, Makhachev didn’t dismiss him outright.

“Well, if I say he's not dangerous at all, it would be wrong,” he said. “Yes, maybe he's dangerous in the first round, but after that I don't think he has any chance.”

That’s Makhachev in a sentence: respectful of the threat, ruthless in the assessment.

Money on the table, pride in the foreground

Boxing, especially the kind of crossover circus that follows McGregor, usually starts and ends with one word: money. Seven figures. Eight figures. The interviewer threw those ranges at Makhachev, the sort of numbers that make even seasoned champions pause.

He didn’t bite.

“I don't know. When it comes to boxing, they pay very good money,” he acknowledged.

Then he cut to what really matters to him.

“I don't know. Honestly, regardless of the purse I'd box. Specifically against Conor, yes.”

That line reveals plenty. For Makhachev, McGregor isn’t just a lucrative name; he’s a target that carries history, legacy, and a chance to plant a flag in another corner of combat sports. It’s not that the money doesn’t matter. It’s that it won’t be the reason he says yes.

Two careers, two very different arcs

McGregor is no longer the snarling, sharp-edged phenom who tore through featherweights and lightweights with laser left hands and venomous timing. He’s coming off a brutal ACL and meniscus tear suffered at UFC 329 in his comeback bid, another chapter in a career increasingly defined by layoffs and rehab rather than belts and bonuses.

Yet his name still moves the sport.

He remains one of the most recognizable strikers in combat sports, the man who once walked into a boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather and went 10 rounds with the most polished defensive boxer of this generation. That was back in 2017, when McGregor still had his speed, his reflexes, and his aura.

Nearly a decade has passed. The miles, and the surgeries, have piled up.

Makhachev, by contrast, has moved in the opposite direction. His striking has sharpened steadily during his UFC run, evolving from a functional complement to his suffocating grappling into a genuine weapon. He no longer looks like a wrestler who can punch; he looks like a champion who can choose how he wants to beat you.

A boxing match between the two, on paper, still feels like a long shot. Contracts, promotions, injuries, timing—every layer adds another hurdle. But Alalshikh has already shown he can drag unlikely fights into reality, and he has the resources to make even the most stubborn parties listen.

If he manages to pull this one together, it won’t just be another crossover sideshow. It will be a collision of eras: McGregor, the fading icon of MMA’s boom years, against Makhachev, the methodical champion who has turned dominance into routine.

One man chasing one more big night. The other chasing proof that his ceiling sits even higher than a UFC belt.