When UFC lightweights go to sleep at night the last thing they do before pulling the covers up and closing their eyes is to check under the bed for Islam Makhachev .

The 30-year-old  is widely regarded as the next champion-in-waiting, filling the gap left behind by friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov as the division’s resident terrifying boogeyman from the Dagestan region.

Makhachev combines the dominant sambo-style of wrestling that has come to be expected of all the fighters that hail from Dagestan with a more polished and pronounced striking game than Khabib possessed.

It has led Makhachev to a 9 fight win-streak including three submission victories in his last three fights,that has established him as the next-in-line for a shot at the title after Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira face off in May.

Makhachev had been scheduled to take on Beneil Dariush in a bout that would have acted as a title eliminator this weekend, with Dariush being viewed as the only fighter in the division to have the grappling skills to give Makhachev a true acid test.

Dariush, who himself is on a 7 fight win streak, completely mullered Tony Ferguson last May and would have provided the former Combat Sambo World Champion with the biggest challenge of his career so far. However, Dariush was forced into pulling out of the contest after injuring his ankle during training, per Brett Okamoto.

With the fight set to headline this weekend’s Fight Night at the UFC Apex, Dana White and co. scrambled to find a replacement but who in their right mind would step up on 10 days’ notice to go toe-to-toe with a monster like Makhachev?

Well, Bobby Green is because Bobby Green is a fucking gangster.

Coming off a convincing shutout of Nasrat Haqrapast on Februray 12^th at UFC 271, Green has decided to step up to the plate and take on the terrifying spectre of the man many are crowning as the “next Khabib” rather than enjoy the spoils of victory.

Many fighters claim to be card-carrying members of the Triple A Club – ready to fight anyone, anywhere at any time – but Green is letting his actions speak far louder than his words, which for the 35-year-old veteran trash talker is saying something.

Makhachev has claimed that a number of lightweights ranked in the Top 10 of the division decided against filling in for Dariush – including Michael Chandler, Gregor Gillespie, Tony Ferguson and Rafael Dos Anjos – with Green the only one to answer the call.

While Green does have the benefit of just coming out of a training camp, he’s still having to put himself through a significant weight cut to make the catchweight of 160lbs, telling Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour that he had already cut “20-25 pounds” in the days following the fight announcement, having rehydrated after weighing in against Haqrapast.

Haqrapast isn’t in the same league as Makhachev either when it comes to game-planning, with the German not offering much of a threat in the ground game, so it’s not like Green is rolling out of a camp that was engineered towards battling an elite wrestler.

Of course, the 35-year-old “King” has put himself into a win-win situation by accepting the call. If he loses, as many expect him to, he’s lost to the top prospect in the division on short notice and wins fans with his ballsy attitude in the process.

That doesn’t take away from the “gangsta shit” decision to take on Makhachev.

The lightweight division is a bear pit and arguably the most talent-stacked division in the UFC, but nobody else has put their neck on the line to take on the 21-1 mauler. Green has said he’s doing this to show the fans that he’s “fucking nuts” and on paper, he really is.

Makhachev hasn’t been troubled on this 9 fight win streak and has looked lethal since returning to action in 2021, submitting Drew Dober, Thiago Moises and Dan Hooker.

It was hoped that Hooker would be able to genuinely threaten Makhachev in the striking department but the New Zealander could only land 4 strikes before being taken down and being forced to tap out to a vicious kimura.

People will point to Makhachev’s only defeat coming via knockout to Adriano Martins who hasn’t won a fight since as showing a glaring in his stand up game, yet that loss came almost 7 years ago. Things have massively improved since then and Makhachev is currently only absorbing 0.79 significant strikes per minute with a 70% strike defence ratio, meaning that 7 out of every 10 strikes that come his way aren’t landing.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenge he faces this weekend, if Green can shock the world then he’ll catapult himself into the rankings and should be considered for a title shot despite currently being unranked.

To do so, the veteran of 42 professional fights will have to force a boxing match and be perfect in denying Makhachev as much time on the ground as possible.

Green is the best pure boxer that the Russian has faced in the octagon and we’ve seen how confused elite fighters are by having to face someone that is capable of working from behind a jab.

He’s made it perfectly clear that he intends to force Makhachev into a good old fashioned game of fisticuffs, going as far to say that “I’m going to walk in there like a gangster and punch him right in his fucking face”.

Whether he can do that for a sustained period is up for debate.

What isn’t up for debate is this – Bobby “King” Green is a real fucking gangster.