Islam Makhachev's Record-Breaking Streak vs. Jon Jones' Legacy

Islam Makhachev isn’t backing down from history. He’s trying to rewrite it.

Fresh off his welterweight title defense over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 in August, Makhachev pushed his winning streak under the UFC banner to 17, moving clear of Anderson Silva’s long-standing mark of 16. On paper, it’s a clean, simple record: most consecutive victories in UFC history.

But nothing about the “greatest ever” debate in this sport is simple, especially when Jon Jones is involved.

Makhachev vs. Jones: Whose Run Really Counts?

Contrarians point straight to Jones. The former light heavyweight and current heavyweight champion has gone 20 straight fights without a loss since December 2009, a stretch that dwarfs almost every résumé the sport has seen.

The problem sits in the middle of that run.

Jones’ 2017 rematch with Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 originally ended in a brutal knockout win for Jones, only to be overturned to a no contest after a failed drug test. That result snapped the official streak, but many fans and pundits still treat his unbeaten run as uninterrupted.

Makhachev wants no part of that logic.

"I'm not denying that Jon Jones is one of the greatest athletes in history," Makhachev told Ushatayka in Russian. "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."

In his eyes, the record book resets the moment a fighter steps into the cage enhanced. The wins might stay on the highlight reels, but the integrity of the streak, he argues, does not.

The Shadow of Testing – On Both Sides

Those comments are guaranteed to light up the debate, and not just about Jones.

Makhachev’s critics will be quick to drag out his own history: a failed anti-doping test in 2016 that has followed him for years. The accusation of hypocrisy will come easily.

Yet the UFC’s own anti-doping chief has already gone on record about that episode. In May 2024, when Makhachev received his jacket for 50 clean tests in the program, UFC senior vice president of anti-doping compliance Jeff Novitzky labeled the 2016 result “one of the greatest, colossal mistakes in anti-doping.”

That endorsement doesn’t erase the past, but it does explain why Makhachev speaks with such conviction now. He sees his name cleared. He sees his streak as untarnished. And he clearly believes that’s not the case for Jones.

The argument cuts right to the heart of how this era will be judged: raw numbers on a page, or numbers filtered through the lens of who was clean and when.

A Champion Waiting on the Scan

While the debate rages, Makhachev’s attention isn’t only on history books and legacies.

After turning back Garry and solidifying his grip on the 170-pound belt, he outlined a straightforward plan: get healthy, get cleared, get back in the cage. He’s targeting a return in January or sooner, depending on the outcome of recent MRI scans on potential injuries.

If those results come back the way he hopes, the man who just set a new benchmark for consecutive UFC wins will step into another camp, another defense, and another chance to stretch the record further out of reach.

And every time his name gets announced, the question will hang over the arena: is this the true standard for sustained greatness in the UFC, or does that honor still belong to Jon Jones?