Islam Makhachev is No. 1 on our welterweight board. His published rating, 1936, is the highest on any board on the site. He has fought twice at 170 lb, and by our scoring neither win was dominant.
For an index built on how decisively people win, that looks like a contradiction. It isn't one, but it is the placement we would most expect to be questioned, so here is how it happens.
Start with where the rating came from. Each division has its own rating, and a fighter who changes weight brings most of his rating with him, with a wider margin of error, until results at the new weight confirm it. Makhachev moved up as a former lightweight champion. Carried across, his published figure at welterweight before his first fight there was 1835. On its own, that would rank him behind only Carlos Prates and Michael Morales on today's board.
Then the two fights. In November 2025 he took the title from Jack Della Maddalena, 50–45 on all three cards. In August he defended it against Ian Machado Garry, 49–46, 49–46 and 48–47. Going in, our best estimates had Della Maddalena at 2003 and Garry at 1952. Beating opponents rated that high moves a rating a long way whatever the margin, and the two wins took his published figure from 1835 to 1940. Two months out of the cage have since trimmed it to 1936.
So why aren't they dominant? We score the Della Maddalena fight 82–18 and the Garry fight 84–16. Our line for a dominant win is 85. A unanimous decision starts at 76 and can earn up to 15 more for how one-sided it was: significant strike difference carries 40% of that, control time 30%, knockdowns 20%.
Control is where Makhachev lives. He held Della Maddalena down for 19 minutes 10 seconds and Garry for 12 minutes 30. Both are far past seven minutes, the point where our control credit stops growing, so both fights banked the full share. The striking is where the score ran out. He landed 12 more significant strikes than Della Maddalena and 7 fewer than Garry. One knockdown against Garry added its share, which is why that fight scores higher despite being closer on the cards.
That is the honest summary. He won both fights clearly against two highly rated opponents, and he did it with control rather than damage. The index counts control, but it caps it and weighs it below the strike count. That is a choice, and it is why a 50–45 sweep lands at 82 rather than somewhere near 90.
The dagger next to his name matters too. Two fights is a small sample, and his margin of error at 170 is still wider than those of Carlos Prates, Sean Brady and Garry behind him. The number at the top of the board is real. It is also the one most likely to move.
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