Islam Makhachev Eyes Boxing Match with Conor McGregor

Islam Makhachev has conquered almost everything that matters in MMA. Now his eyes are drifting toward a different arena – and a familiar name.

The UFC welterweight champion and current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter has admitted he’s genuinely intrigued by the idea of boxing Conor McGregor. Not another MMA grudge match. Not a late-career novelty. A straight-up boxing bout with the sport’s biggest crossover star.

He knows exactly how it sounds. And he doesn’t care.

“Regardless of the purse”

Speaking to Ushatayka, Makhachev didn’t dance around the question. He went straight at it.

“Yes maybe he’s dangerous in the first round, but after that I don’t think he has any chance. Honestly, regardless of the purse I’d box (Conor),” he said.

That line tells the story. This isn’t about chasing a lottery ticket or attaching his name to McGregor’s for one last blockbuster. Makhachev believes he would “wipe the floor” with McGregor in a boxing ring and insists the money is secondary.

On paper, the timing for an MMA clash makes no sense. McGregor is coming off multiple losses and nowhere near a welterweight title shot. The UFC belt is not on the table. The rankings don’t support it. The meritocracy would laugh it out of the room.

But boxing operates on a different logic.

A fantasy fight with real teeth

Strip away the takedowns, the clinch, the suffocating top control that has defined Makhachev’s dominance. Put him in 10-ounce gloves and tell him he has to stand in front of McGregor. Suddenly the dynamic changes.

In an MMA cage, almost everyone would pick Makhachev. His elite grappling and all-round game give McGregor very little room to breathe. In a boxing ring, McGregor’s path is clearer: no wrestling to worry about, no kicks to check, just a hunt for that left hand and a clean look at Makhachev’s chin.

McGregor still carries genuine power. Even now, even after the losses, the “puncher’s chance” cliché actually fits. One shot can flip a fight, and McGregor has built a career – and a fortune – on landing that one shot.

Makhachev, though, is not the one-dimensional wrestler some still imagine. He’s become an excellent striker in his own right, technically sharp, composed under fire, and increasingly confident in the pocket. He may not be known primarily for his stand-up, but he’s good enough to hold his own against top-level opponents on the feet. Against McGregor in a boxing match, he’d be stepping into the Irishman’s preferred world, but not as a helpless tourist.

That tension is what makes the idea linger. The best fighter in MMA today against the man who turned MMA into a global spectacle, stripped down to hands only. It’s the kind of matchup that keeps promoters awake at night.

Dana White’s dilemma

Would Dana White ever actually book it?

On the MMA side, Makhachev vs. McGregor is a non-starter right now. It doesn’t fit the title picture, and McGregor’s recent form hardly demands it. But as a boxing event, under a Zuffa Boxing banner or a similar venture, the calculus changes.

White would be selling a fight between the sport’s current pound-for-pound king and its biggest-ever star. Legacy versus celebrity. Dominance versus aura. Even for a promoter who insists the UFC is not in the business of circus fights, that’s a hard one to ignore.

And yet, it remains stuck in the realm of “what if.”

The odds say we’ll never see Makhachev and McGregor share a ring or a cage in any meaningful way again. Contracts, timing, injuries, egos, and business all stand in the way. But Makhachev’s words have done their job.

He’s opened the door just a crack.

Now the question hangs over both men: will this stay a fantasy matchup fans kick around online, or will the UFC’s most dominant champion and its most famous showman ever actually meet in the one arena where neither can hide behind their greatest weapon?