UFC 302 takeaways: Makhachev's striking a threat to everybody

Islam Makhachev retained the UFC lightweight title for the third time Saturday, defeating Dustin Poirier via fifth-round submission in the UFC 302 main event in Newark.

In the co-headliner, former middleweight champion Sean Strickland returned to the win column with a split decision over Paulo Costa.

Here are three takeaways from the pay-per-view event.

Makhachev levels up his striking again

In the span of 16 months, Makhachev held his own on the feet with Alexander Volkanovski, then knocked him out in the rematch, and has now outstruck Poirier.

Considering Makhachev entered the UFC as a fighter who almost entirely relied on his wrestling and grappling - just like his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov did - it's extremely impressive that he's beating some of the best strikers MMA has ever seen at their own game. And it shows how versatile the lightweight champ's skill set has gotten.

Makhachev landed the most significant strikes he ever has in a fight (88) and limited Poirier to the fewest significant strikes he's landed in a fight that entered the fifth round (74, down from 178 against Max Holloway and 153 against Dan Hooker). Sure, Makhachev's takedown threat likely kept Poirier in check a bit in the stand-up department, but Makhachev did a lot of good work that frankly had little to do with the fact he had elite wrestling in his back pocket. The Russian landed nice counters at range and solid shots in the clinch, and he even stung Poirier on the feet a couple times.

A lot of the talk after UFC 302 is about Poirier and how he exceeded expectations, which is totally fair. Poirier was a 4-1 underdog and proved to be a much more serious test for Makhachev than almost anyone thought he would be. Poirier busted Makhachev up on the feet and did a terrific job defending takedowns and getting back to his feet when he did get put in a defensive position.

Still, Makhachev was one step ahead of Poirier for almost the entire fight. After the 32-year-old leveled up his game yet again, it's hard to see how anyone at 155 pounds can stop him.

Costa's stock plummets

Costa's loss to Strickland may have been the final nail in the coffin for his title hopes at 185 pounds.

After starting his pro MMA career with 13 straight wins (including four finishes in the UFC that put him on a path to fight Israel Adesanya for the belt), Costa is 1-4 in his last five Octagon appearances and has only one win since 2019.

These aren't exactly the kind of numbers that define a true contender in the world's biggest MMA promotion.

Overcoming a former champ in Strickland on Saturday - after coming up just short against Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February - was Costa's chance to get back on track and make a big move up the division. But he did the exact opposite of that.

Strickland used pressure and crisp boxing to stifle Costa's offense all fight. UFC CEO Dana White said he expected the Brazilian to turn it into a street fight based on his past performances, but that never came close to happening. Not only did Costa's performance show that he's no longer part of the upper echelon of the division, but it was lackluster enough to dissuade the UFC from giving him big fights in the future.

Almeida back in the hunt

Jailton Almeida wanted to make people forget about his UFC 299 knockout loss to Curtis Blaydes. The Brazilian heavyweight couldn't have done a much better job than he did this past weekend.

Almeida ran through Alexandr Romanov, submitting him with a rear-naked choke in less than two-and-a-half minutes. It wasn't flashy or a particularly surprising result, but it gets people talking about Almeida the fearsome contender again - not Almeida the grappler who can't strike and got knocked out by Blaydes in March.

In a relatively shallow heavyweight division, a victory like this puts Almeida right back in the hunt for gold. Ranked No. 7 in the weight class, it'll only take a couple more wins to be front and center in the title conversation. Don't forget that had Almeida beaten Blaydes, he'd probably be preparing to challenge Tom Aspinall for the interim title at UFC 304 on July 27 in Manchester, England. Almeida was already in the mix, and now at 7-1 in the UFC, he's back again.

Almeida called out former interim champion Ciryl Gane for a fight in Paris later this year, which seems like a great next step. Either Gane keeps the fight standing and picks Almeida apart with his elite kickboxing and Muay Thai, or Almeida pulls a Jon Jones and strangles Gane in enemy territory for the biggest win of his career.