Islam Makhachev joins Alex Pereira as latest UFC star Dana White says could be the GOAT over Jon Jones

Dana White thinks Islam Makhachev is definitely on track to potentially become the GOAT.

This coming Saturday, Islam Makhachev makes the first defense of his welterweight title when he takes on Ian Machado Garry in the UFC 330 main event.

Ahead of their highly anticipated clash in Philadelphia, Machado Garry has argued that he has faced a higher level of opponent than what Makhachev has.

Despite that, the Dagestani champion is the pound-for-pound number one fighter on the planet for a reason, and on Saturday night, he can take one step closer to cementing that legacy.

Dana White says Makhachev is on his way to becoming the GOAT

‘The Future’ has recognized that taking on Makhachev is the ‘toughest challenge’ in UFC title fight history because of the Russian’s dominant run.

Despite that, Machado Garry has been talked up by his UFC boss, Dana White, who has said that the Irishman is a ‘serious threat’ to Makhachev’s title reign.

And with that, White isn’t quite ready to say that Makhachev could separate himself as the greatest fighter of all time, but he does agree that he is well on his way to cementing that label.

“I don’t think about that stuff until the fight happens, when we see his performance on Saturday, let’s see how it plays out,” White said during the post-fight press conference at Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday.

With a win, the 34-year-old will separate himself from Anderson Silva with the longest win streak in UFC history.

“Obviously breaking the record (puts him closer), you keep grinding and keep fighting, put your head down and just keep knocking guys down left and right, and then by the time you say, ‘I’m done’, we all figure out where he ends up in the big picture, but he’s on the right path, that’s for sure.

“He’s got all the things there to be the guy, I think we should talk about this Saturday night after the fight based off his performance on Saturday, if he breaks the record,” White continued.

Usually the UFC boss is extremely dismissive when talking about anyone other than Jon Jones being the greatest fighter of all time.

However, even earlier this year White swayed from his general consensus regarding the GOAT debate, saying that Alex Pereira could’ve cemented himself as the undeniable GOAT if he beat Ciryl Gane at UFC Freedom 250.

Of course, ‘Poatan’ was unsuccessful with that, but for the first time in a while, White’s allegiances changed, and he has again opened the door up to potentially be swayed.