Islam Makhachev Height 2026: How Tall Is Makhachev?

Last updated: November 4, 2026  ·  By Nathan Cole

Islam Makhachev is 5 feet 10 inches tall. That is 178 centimetres, or 1.78 metres, and it is the figure listed by Wikipedia, by bet365 News in August 2026, and on the official tale of the tape for each of his last three title fights. He is the UFC welterweight champion, a former lightweight champion, and the owner of a 29-1 professional record — and he won the heavier belt against men taller than he is.

The number needs one correction before anything else. Makhachev turned 35 on October 27, 2026, eight days before this article was last updated. Pages written in August 2026 still call him 34. They were right when they were written and they are out of date now. His height has no such moving part. It has been 5 ft 10 in on every serious listing for years. What follows is the full picture, checked against reporting up to November 4, 2026: the height, the reach argument that sits beside it, the typo that keeps confusing searchers, how he measures up against every recent opponent, and the career that made a 5 ft 10 in welterweight the hardest puzzle in the sport.

How Tall Is Islam Makhachev?

Islam Makhachev stands 5 feet 10 inches tall. In metric terms that is 178 centimetres, or 1.78 metres. Seventy inches, end to end. The figure has been stable for his whole UFC career. It appears on his Wikipedia profile, on bet365 News’ August 2026 fighter profile, and on the tale of the tape for his January 2025 lightweight defence, his November 2025 welterweight title win, and his August 2026 welterweight defence. Three different fights, three different broadcast teams, one height.

For readers outside the United States, the conversions matter because the sport still publishes in feet and inches. Five feet 10 inches is 178 cm exactly on the standard conversion (1 inch = 2.54 cm, 70 × 2.54 = 177.8, rounded to 178). It is not 180 cm. That round number belongs to a 5 ft 11 in fighter, and Makhachev is one inch short of it. It is also not 175 cm, which would be 5 ft 9 in. Anyone who finds a profile giving one of those numbers has found a rounding error or a different fighter’s data pasted into the wrong row.

Height alone tells a thin story in MMA, and Makhachev’s career is the proof. He is not a tall welterweight. He is a middle-of-the-division welterweight who spent most of his career one division down, at lightweight, where 5 ft 10 in reads as solid rather than short. The move up to 170 lb in 2025 put him in a division where several of the men ranked around him stand 6 ft or taller. He has beaten the two tallest tests put in front of him there anyway, and the sections below show exactly how the measurements lined up.

What Is His Reach — and Why Sources Disagree by Half an Inch

Makhachev’s reach is listed at 70 inches by Wikipedia, by Sports Mole’s UFC 322 preview, and by MMA Sucka. It is listed at 70.5 inches by bet365 News, by GiveMeSport’s UFC 311 preview, and by the ATS UFC 330 preview. Both numbers describe the same arms. The half-inch gap is a rounding and measurement-source difference, not a dispute about his body. This article publishes the range, 70–70.5 in (178–179 cm), and treats 70 in as the conservative figure.

The interesting part is what the reach means next to the height. A fighter whose reach matches his height has an ape index of zero: no extra length to hide behind. Makhachev’s reach is equal to his height on the 70 in listing, and half an inch longer on the 70.5 in listing. Either way, he does not win fights by touching opponents from a distance they cannot return. His striking defence, measured at 61 percent in the PropBetEdge profile of his UFC record, and his takedown game do the work that a longer reach does for other fighters. He averages 3.22 takedowns per 15 minutes at 54 percent accuracy across the 19 fights in that profile’s archive, with 114 minutes of control time. Reach is a footnote in his game. Control time is the headline.

His stance is southpaw on every listing, and that matters more than the half-inch reach argument. A southpaw lead hand and lead leg change the angles of every exchange, and they change the entries for his takedowns. Opponents who spend a camp preparing for an orthodox wrestler walk into a mirrored problem. The stance, combined with a low, heavy base built on years of sambo, is why a 5 ft 10 in fighter can hold down a 6 ft 3 in opponent for five rounds — which is what happened in Philadelphia in August 2026.

The 5-Foot-7 Typo That Keeps Confusing Searchers

Search “Islam Makhachev height” and one result will stop you cold. A Bloody Elbow profile snippet reads, in full: “Makhachev stands at 5 feet 7 inches (178 cm) tall.” Read it twice and it falls apart. Five feet 7 inches is 170 cm. One hundred and seventy-eight centimetres is 5 ft 10 in. A single line cannot be both, and the centimetre figure is the one every other source confirms.

This article flags the line rather than ignoring it, because searchers keep tripping over it. If you have seen 5 ft 7 in attached to Makhachev’s name, you have seen that typo travelling. No tale-of-the-tape listing, no UFC broadcast graphic, and no profile table from Wikipedia, bet365, GiveMeSport, Sports Mole or ATS has ever put him at 5 ft 7 in. His former lightweight rival Arman Tsarukyan is the 5 ft 7 in fighter in that orbit — GiveMeSport’s UFC 311 preview lists Tsarukyan at 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) beside Makhachev at 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) — and the two figures sit close enough in preview copy for a tired line to swap them. The centimetre figure in the Bloody Elbow snippet gives the error away. Trust the centimetres, and the answer is 5 ft 10 in.

Height Against His Biggest Opponents

A height figure only means something against the men standing across the cage. The table below uses tale-of-the-tape listings published for the actual fights, not generic profile pages, so every comparison is tied to a date.

The pattern is plain. At lightweight, Makhachev was usually the taller man in title fights — four inches over Volkanovski, three over the man scheduled to face him in January 2025. At welterweight, the pattern flips. Both men he has faced for or in defence of the 170 lb belt were taller than him, and both lost to him on the judges’ cards over five rounds. Height gave Della Maddalena one extra inch and a 73 in reach against Makhachev’s 70 in. Height gave Garry five extra inches and a 74.5 in reach against Makhachev’s 70.5 in on the ATS listing. Neither advantage survived contact with Makhachev’s grappling.

Why 5 Foot 10 Works at Welterweight

Welterweight is a division of long fighters. The champion standing 5 ft 10 in should, on paper, be giving up range in every title fight. Makhachev gives it up and wins anyway, for three reasons that have nothing to do with his height and everything to do with what he does with it.

First, his height keeps his centre of gravity low. Takedown entries, body locks and mat returns all get easier when the shooter does not have far to drop. His sambo base — built from childhood, detailed below — trained him to win the clinch before the striking range ever mattered. Second, his conditioning lets him hold top position for whole rounds. The Garry fight went the full 25 minutes, and the scores (49-46, 49-46, 48-47) show a champion who was still in control in the fifth round, not one hanging on. Third, the move from 155 lb to 170 lb removed the hardest weight cut of his career. He no longer has to drain himself to make lightweight, so he enters fight week closer to his natural size and recovers better between rounds. The division change traded a height advantage at lightweight for a healthier, stronger version of the same fighter at welterweight. The results so far — two wins, two unanimous decisions, one new belt and one defence — say the trade worked.

Early Life in Dagestan: Burshi, Family, and a Brother’s Sacrifice

Islam Ramazanovich Makhachev was born on October 27, 1991, in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and grew up in the remote mountain village of Burshi. He is an ethnic Lak. His father grew tomatoes and worked as a driver. His mother was a housewife who ran a small café. He has an older brother, Kurbanismail. The family was poor, and that fact shaped his career more directly than most fans realise.

The Washington Post told the story in November 2025, weeks after Makhachev won his second UFC belt. The family could not afford to send both boys to train with Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, the legendary Dagestani sambo and judo coach who was building his son Khabib into a champion. Kurban was older. If one of them was going to train to fight, it would be him. Instead, Kurban put his own dream aside and took two jobs to help pay for Islam’s training. Islam went to work with Nurmagomedov, training alongside Khabib, who is three years older. The brother who stayed home paid for the career of the brother who left.

Makhachev started taekwondo at age seven under Seyfula Magomedov. At school he moved to sanda, where he trained with Abubakar Nurmagomedov and met Khabib. He played soccer for two years after a family move, wrestled freestyle for a year, and then committed to mixed martial arts under Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. While training, he studied physical education and sports at Dagestan State University. He has said he was a UFC fan from childhood, naming Tank Abbott and Ken Shamrock among his early favourites — a long way from the patient, grinding style he would eventually make his own.

Sambo Before MMA: The Base Under the Height

Before the UFC, there was sambo. Makhachev won the Russian National Combat Sambo Championship at 74 kg in February 2014, qualifying for the world championship in Japan. He never got to compete there. Doctors found a heart condition that required treatment, and the trip was off. He came back and won the national title again in 2016, then won the 2016 World Combat Sambo Championship, beating Bulgaria’s Valentin Benishev 7-0 in the final. That gold medal is the foundation of everything that followed: the trips, the body locks, the top control, the patience to hold a position until the opponent gives up a limb or a round.

Sambo explains the height paradox better than any physical measurement. A sambo player does not need long arms. He needs grips, hips and balance, and he needs them under fatigue. Makhachev’s game is built on chaining those skills: a takedown becomes a ride, a ride becomes a back take, a back take becomes a choke. Opponents who prepare for a striker find themselves carrying his weight. Opponents who prepare for a wrestler find the submissions. The height never enters into it, because the fight rarely stays at the range where height pays.

The UFC Debut — and the Only Loss

Makhachev turned professional in MMA in 2010 and signed with the UFC in October 2014, after 11 straight wins on the Russian scene. He debuted on May 23, 2015, at UFC 187, aged 23, against Leo Kuntz. Kuntz was 17-1-1 and riding a long unbeaten run of his own. Makhachev took his back in the first round, survived Kuntz’s escape, then took the back again from the clinch in the second, locked a body triangle and finished with a rear-naked choke. He jumped up and ran to Khabib in his corner. The debut could not have been cleaner.

Five months later came the only blemish on his record. At UFC 192 in October 2015, Brazil’s Adriano Martins caught him with a counter right hand as he came in, and dropped him inside two minutes of the first round. Makhachev was 12-0 going in and a month shy of his 24th birthday. He has not lost since. That single knockout, more than a decade ago, is the whole of his professional defeat column: 29 wins, one loss, and a win streak that now stands as the longest in UFC history.

The Climb to the Lightweight Title

The rebuild after Martins was slow and then relentless. Makhachev stacked wins through 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, fighting his way from prospect to contender while Khabib held the lightweight belt and then retired undefeated at 29-0 in 2020. The comparison followed Makhachev everywhere: the same coach, the same gym, the same grinding style, the same Dagestani roots. He answered it the only way available, by winning until the title shot could not be denied.

It arrived on October 22, 2022, at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, against Charles Oliveira. Makhachev dropped Oliveira with a right hand and submitted him with an arm-triangle choke in the second round to win the vacant UFC Lightweight Championship. He was 30 years old, 23-1 as a professional, and the second Dagestani from Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s gym to hold that belt. The first, Khabib, was now in his corner as a coach, alongside Javier Mendez at the American Kickboxing Academy.

Four Lightweight Defences, a Division Record

What Makhachev did with the belt put him past his mentor on one measure. Khabib defended the lightweight title three times. Makhachev defended it four, a division record, and each defence answered a different question.

First, UFC 284, February 11, 2023, in Perth: a unanimous decision over featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who had moved up in weight to challenge for a second belt. Volkanovski, at 5 ft 6 in, was the shorter man, and the fight was the closest of Makhachev’s title run — a genuine five-round contest that settled nothing about who was better at what, only who won that night. Second, UFC 294, October 21, 2023, in Abu Dhabi: a rematch with Volkanovski, ended in the first round by a head kick and follow-up strikes. Third, UFC 302, June 1, 2024, in Newark: a fifth-round submission of Dustin Poirier, after outstriking the American for long stretches of a fight many expected to be decided on the feet. Fourth, UFC 311, January 18, 2025, in Inglewood: a first-round submission of Renato Moicano, who had stepped in at late notice after Arman Tsarukyan withdrew. The fourth defence broke Khabib’s record and closed the lightweight chapter. Makhachev had cleaned out the division. There was one thing left to chase, and it was 15 pounds heavier.

The Move to Welterweight and a Second Belt

In 2025, Makhachev relinquished the lightweight championship and moved up to welterweight. The decision cost him a belt he could have kept defending, and it bought him a shot at history: a title in a second division, something only a handful of UFC fighters have ever managed. The target was Jack Della Maddalena, the Australian champion, listed at 5 ft 11 in with a 73 in reach.

They met on November 15, 2025, at UFC 322. Makhachev won by unanimous decision over five rounds, taking the UFC Welterweight Championship and becoming a two-division UFC champion. He had given up one inch in height and three inches in reach on the tale of the tape, and he had given up nothing on the scorecards. At 34, he was a champion again, in a heavier division, against a younger, longer champion. The height question that follows him had its answer, again: it did not decide the fight.

UFC 330: Beating a Man Five Inches Taller

The first defence of the welterweight belt was the starkest height test of his career. Ian Machado Garry, the Irish contender, stood 6 ft 3 in — five inches taller than Makhachev, with a 74.5 in reach on the ATS tale of the tape. The fight headlined UFC 330 on August 15, 2026, at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Makhachev was a heavy favourite, and the fight showed why: he scored with takedowns, held top position, landed a head-kick knockdown in the second round according to DraftKings Network’s live coverage, and took the back in the fifth to close out a unanimous decision, 49-46, 49-46, 48-47.

The win did two things at once. It gave Makhachev his first successful welterweight title defence, and it gave him his 17th consecutive UFC win, moving him past Anderson Silva’s longstanding record of 16. Silva’s streak had stood as one of the sport’s untouchable marks. Makhachev broke it against the tallest opponent of his championship career, in a fight where the height gap was the pre-fight story and his control game was the post-fight story. That is the shape of his whole career in one night: the measurement says one thing, the result says another.

Age, Weight and Physical Profile in 2026

At the time of writing, Makhachev is 35 years old, 5 ft 10 in tall, and competing at 170 lb. He turned 35 on October 27, 2026, which is why older profiles calling him 34 are now wrong. He turns 36 on October 27, 2027. His listed weight has moved with his division: 155 lb through his lightweight run, 170 lb since the move up in 2025. No reliable walk-around weight between fights was found in this research, and this article does not print one.

For context, his record breaks down as 29 wins and 1 loss. Adding his two unanimous-decision wins at UFC 322 and UFC 330 to the pre-UFC 322 split published by Sports Mole (5 knockouts, 13 submissions, 9 decisions) gives 5 knockouts, 13 submissions and 11 decisions across the 29 wins. The shape of that split is the story: fewer than one in five of his wins come by knockout, and nearly half come by submission. He is a grappler first, a striker second, and a finisher third only in the sense that the grappling finishes fights. His southpaw stance, his 70–70.5 in reach and his 5 ft 10 in frame are the measurements of a control fighter, not a sniper.

Personal Life and Net Worth in Brief

Makhachev married on April 8, 2021, in Makhachkala. Profile listings name his wife as Patimat. Beyond that, he keeps his family life private, and this article follows that line: no details about his children are published here, because he has chosen not to make them public. He trains between Dagestan and the American Kickboxing Academy, coached by Khabib Nurmagomedov and Javier Mendez, and he fights out of Makhachkala.

On money, the trackers agree more than they usually do. Celebrity Net Worth puts his net worth at $6 million on a page that already includes the UFC 330 win. SurpriseSports, updated October 7, 2026, also gives $6 million. bet365 News gave $5–7 million in early 2026, and GlimmerSports gives $6–7 million. This article anchors on $6 million inside a $5M–$7M range. One late-2025 tracker, FanArch, stretched to $6–8 million; that $8 million top end is noted here as the outlier, not the consensus. InfoCelebs names Monster Energy and Gorilla Energy among his endorsement deals, and FanArch reported in November 2025 that his disclosed UFC purses alone exceed $8 million — a reported figure, not a UFC-confirmed one, and purses do not include pay-per-view shares, bonuses or taxes. The money section is context for a height article, not the headline: the point is that a 5 ft 10 in fighter from Burshi now earns championship money in two divisions.

What Happens Next: One of His Last Fights?

As of late October 2026, Makhachev has no fight scheduled. That is not a rumour; it is the state of the UFC’s own listings, confirmed by AgentMMA’s fighter database as of October 31, 2026. What comes next has a shape, though. On October 30, 2026, AgentMMA reported that Makhachev has said his next fight will be one of the last of his career, and that he will not defend his belt until after Ramadan in 2027. A week earlier, Bloody Elbow reported on October 23 that he is no longer targeted for the UFC 336 main event.

UFC 336, on January 30, 2027, in Toronto, will instead feature Carlos Prates against Michael Morales for an interim welterweight belt in the co-main event. Prates is the challenger Makhachev himself named as most deserving after UFC 330, telling the Paramount+ post-fight show that Prates was “still fighting, still active” while other contenders were sidelined. The interim belt sets up a path back to Makhachev once he returns after Ramadan. If that fight happens, it will be another height test: Prates stands 6 ft 1 in on the October 2026 reports, three inches taller than the champion, with a reach advantage to match. On the evidence of Garry and Della Maddalena, that gap will be the pre-fight story again. On the same evidence, it will not be the result.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Reporting

This article was researched on 4 November 2026 from live reporting: Wikipedia’s Islam Makhachev page for the birth date and place, the 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) height, the 70 in reach, the 2010 professional debut, the October 2014 UFC signing, the Burshi upbringing, the family details, the Dagestan State University study, and the 2014 and 2016 Russian national sambo titles plus the 2016 world gold; bet365 News (updated August 17, 2026) for the 5 ft 10 in height, the 70.5 in reach, the southpaw stance, the May 23, 2015 UFC debut, and the $5–7 million early-2026 net worth range; GiveMeSport for the UFC 311 tale of the tape (Makhachev 5 ft 10 in, 70.5 in reach; Tsarukyan 5 ft 7 in) and the early-opponent history; Sports Mole for the UFC 322 tale of the tape (Makhachev 5 ft 10 in, 70 in reach; Della Maddalena 5 ft 11 in, 73 in reach) and the pre-fight record split; ATS and Real Combat Media for the UFC 330 tale of the tape (Makhachev 5 ft 10 in vs Garry 6 ft 3 in); Sporting News for the UFC 294 weigh-in heights (Makhachev 5 ft 10 in, Volkanovski 5 ft 6 in); Yardbarker for the UFC 311 tale of the tape (Moicano 5 ft 11 in); Bloody Elbow for the UFC 187 debut account and the October 23, 2026 UFC 336 report, including the internally contradictory “5 feet 7 inches (178 cm)” snippet flagged in this article as a typo; TheSportster for the 2016 world sambo final score (7-0 over Valentin Benishev) and the 2014 heart-condition story; the Washington Post (November 20, 2025) for the brother’s sacrifice story; SI, MMA Mania, DraftKings Network and SirfSports (August–September 2026) for the UFC 330 result, scores, venue, head-kick knockdown and the record 17th straight UFC win; AgentMMA (database as of October 31, 2026, and October 30, 2026 news) for the current champion status, the lack of a scheduled fight, the “one of the last fights” comment, the post-Ramadan 2027 return window, and the UFC 336 interim-belt plan; Sherdog (August 17, 2026) for Makhachev naming Carlos Prates as most deserving; Celebrity Net Worth for the $6 million net worth and the two-division title history; SurpriseSports (updated October 7, 2026), InfoCelebs and GlimmerSports for the $6 million and $6–7 million figures and the Monster Energy and Gorilla Energy endorsements; FanArch (November 2025) for the $6–8 million top end and the $8 million-plus disclosed-purses figure; and SillySeason for the April 8, 2021 wedding date. Where sources disagreed — reach, and the size of his fortune — the article names the disagreement instead of picking a number silently. Corrections are welcome via the About page.