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Islam Makhachev broke Anderson Silva’s consecutive UFC victories record and the last man to fight ‘The Spider’, as of this writing, weighed in on this. That combatant in question is Tyron Woodley, who also held the 170-pound crown that the Dagestan native defended over the weekend. Islam Makhachev defeated Ian Machado Garry on points at UFC 330 on August 15th to secure his first defense of the welterweight belt. Touching upon the reigning titleholder notching an all-important title defense across what is now a second weight division after a historic run at lightweight, Woodley said [via Bowks Talking Bouts], “[Islam] Makhachev, I feel like he’s a great fighter. I feel like the biggest Dagistanian and Russian flex is discipline. They’re more focused on discipline, more focused on being undefeated than they are women, girls, cars, you know what I mean? Fancy things, clout and exposure. Looking cool and dressing this way. Their focus is on discipline and I feel like that’s a lost art in the entertainment. Because this is the entertainment that we use sport to entertain. But it’s entertainment first. Don’t ever get it twisted.” “The second you start getting paid for it, the second viewage and how people perceive you dictates whether or not you fight in big fights, it’s in entertainment. So, he’s found a way to stay focused long enough that you can’t look past his dominance, his win streak, and his ability to win fights. I’m impressed with the discipline. I do feel like a lot of his success and a lot of the news, a lot of the articles and things are really heavy Khabib. It’s a lot of Khabib.” “Like I don’t really know much about Islam and what he likes. I know about him being Khabib’s pupil and this prodigy and he trained him. Like he’s teaching him along the way. Maybe that’s an angle that we haven’t seen enough. Like God say, “Hey, you know, God’s telling you nice things. I pay for all this English and you don’t know English and you know what I mean? Be nice. Don’t tell him to shut up. Just maybe not say nothing.” “I just like that he don’t care how much money he makes. He stays to his values. That’s the main thing. Like, am I going to sit and act like he’s the best fighter I ever saw? Like, “Oh my God, I’m blown away by him.” No, I’m not. But I think he’s a great fighter and I think his discipline is some of the greatest discipline.” “That small niche of guys from that circle. I feel like the kids should really, if they want to look up to someone, they should look up to them. They stay focused. They didn’t let other things distract them. I occasionally had the other women primarily distract me because my focal point was too much on that and less on this. I really admire them for staying so focused.” Islam Makhachev favours discipline over entertainment as a UFC champion, per Tyron Woodley Articles from around the time that ‘The Chosen One’ lost his belt cited a diverted focus toward a rockstar lifestyle, focusing on things outside of competitive excellence within mixed martial arts. Delving into the mistakes he ties to his own welterweight title journey while referencing how much that contrasts with Makhachev’s current lifestyle approach to looming large over 170 pounds, Woodley stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts], “Yeah. You know, I feel like I was always transparent and real. Like at those times when I was living that rockstar life, it wasn’t an act. It was really me. That was just an alter ego that started taking over. Like who Tyron Woodley was and what got him there. I’ve learned from that. Also like I learned that the UFC is their organization. It’s not mine. I don’t know what their goal is. I don’t know what they need to do to capitalize on what they want to do for this organization.” “I wasn’t there when they started it. I’m thankful and I’m blessed to have had an opportunity to even compete in it to show people I was the best in the world. If I can do anything differently, I would focus more on fighting and winning. Less on if people had things out for me or if I was getting treated differently or if whatever. It really don’t even matter. Like they don’t have to let you do anything. They definitely don’t have to treat you good. They definitely shouldn’t treat you bad.” “But if I just keep winning, think about what I’m telling you. Makhachev ain’t out there doing all the things to get the entertainment piece behind him. He’s doing all the discipline to keep the win streak going and keep winning fights. So, had I focused a little bit more on that, I feel like you keep throwing sand in front of somebody and you throw enough of it, they got to address it. They can’t just step over it. They can’t walk around it. They got to address it.” “I feel like that’s what winning does. Dan Lambert told me a long time ago. Dan Lambert is the owner of American Top Team. He said, “Tyron, no. Yeah, you want to get paid. I mean, on principal value, you don’t want to get paid less than what people are getting paid that do the same or similar in your same way. But you want to just win. Just win. Just win. Put more intent.” He kept telling me and now I understand like just win. Had I not lost focus, I beat the most difficult opponents for me before.” “[Kamaru] Usman, Colby [Covington], Gilbert [Burns], [Vicente] Luque, those were not the most difficult opponents. I beat the most difficult opponents, but I lost focus somewhere along the road. You plant seeds in the ground and karma is real. You know what I mean? You got to deal with what you put in the ground.” “I was out there living a lifestyle that wasn’t reflective of a champion. I wasn’t hurting people and doing hardcore drugs. Like sticking up banks and like treating people bad but I knew better. The things I was doing wasn’t the things that got me where I was at.” This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM