According to Hajiyev, in order to remove the American from the first position in the P4P list, the Russian, who owns the UFC lightweight title, must take the UFC welterweight championship belt from British Leon Edwards.
“As long as Jones fights and wins, he will always be number one pound-for-pound,” Gadzhiev said in a video posted on his YouTube channel. “But if Islam is given Edwards and beats Edwards, then I think Islam should definitely be number one.”
Ten days ago, Islam Makhachev suggested that Jon Jones, who resumed his career in March of this year after a three-year break and won the vacant UFC heavyweight championship belt, should not be in the first line of the P4P UFC rankings, since he defeated Cyril Gan, who did not was the champion.
At the same time, the Russian lightweight, who plans to defend his title on October 21 at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, has repeatedly said that he is ready to challenge Leon Edwards.
Currently, Islam Makhachev and Leon Edwards occupy the third and fourth lines in the ranking of the best UFC fighters, respectively, and on the second line of the P4P list is the reigning UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, who lost to the Russian in the previous fight.