Islam Makhachev’s path to the championship, while hindered by challenges in securing top-level opponents, raises concerns when evaluating his level of competition. One can make the argument that Islam was fast tracked to a championship and only has 2 notable wins in the UFC. Consider this: Islam’s last 6 opponents have a win/loss ratio of 65%. Remove Charles and Volk from the equation and that number drops to 58%. The only top 10 ranked lightweights who have a worse “strength of schedule” with lower win/loss ratios are Fiziev(62.5),Gamrot (62%) and Arman (61%). If you consider the entirety of his UFC resume, that win/loss ratio averages to 58%. No other UFC champion has a weaker strength of schedule, even considering other fighters who were also fast tracked to championships, Strickland(66%) O’malley 63% While assessing a fighter on his opponents win/loss ratio isn’t the only determining metric to consider how good a fighter actually is, it does speak to the level of competition and favorable matchmaking. Charles and Volk were the only notable opponents, with Volk being a stylistic mismatch who overachieved in the first bout. Islam has yet to be truly challenged, which in my opinion cannot place him in any real pound for pound conversation, as he is up until this point, a highly skilled yet untested paper champion. Thoughts?