Sonnen, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame's Fight Wing for his war with Anderson Silva at UFC 117, was among the vocal parties who believed Makhachev had more to do in the lightweight division. In fact, he categorized the shift as a "sign of cowardice."

Islam Makhachev fires back at Chael Sonnen for calling his potential welterweight move cowardly, defending his ambitions and legacy.

The UFC signed Makhachev in 2014 after 11 wins in a row on the Russian scene. It wouldn’t be until May 2015 when Makhachev made his UFC debut at UFC 187—the same night Daniel Cormier touched UFC gold against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson.

Islam Makhachev has responded to one popular UFC analyst's claims that he ducked a lightweight title defense against Ilia Topuria.

Chael Sonnen fires back at Islam Makhachev, vowing to "beat it out" of him as their war of words escalates into a heated rivalry.

Another to quickly push back on Sonnen’s take was evidently Makhachev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz. During a recent video on his YouTube channel, ‘The Bad Guy’ sought to clarify his view and recalled the phone call he received from the “annoyed” Dominance MMA CEO.

Chael Sonnen believes Islam Makhachev wanted no part of Ilia Topuria and can't beliebe he even vacated his lightweight title to avoid the fight.