Belal Muhammad has high praise for Islam Makhachev.

This weekend, Makhachev puts his lightweight title and pound-for-pound status on the line when he defends his belt against Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of UFC 311. Should he beat Tsarukyan, Makhachev will claim the record for most title defenses in UFC lightweight history, and cement himself as one of the best fighters of his generation. But the lightweight champion doesn’t want to stop there.

Recently, Makhachev has made it clear he would like to move up and win a second title, but there’s one problem: Belal Muhammad is the current welterweight champion. Though not official teammates, Muhammad and Makhachev train together regularly and the lightweight champion doesn’t want to fight Muhammad for the welterweight title. But Muhammad has a possible solution.

“I think that right now, he’s about to make history,” Muhammad told Mike Bohn. “He wins, he’s going to have the most title defenses at 155. I’ve said it a million times, I think he could go to 185.”

A UFC champion jumping up in weight classes is a rare enough occurrence on its own, but a champion has never skipped a weight class to compete two divisions up. But if someone was going to do it, Makhachev, who is the current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, might be the one to pull it off. However, Muhammad also has another suggestion: Makhachev just wait for one more year.

Muhammad was supposed to defend his welterweight title against Shavkat Rakhmonov in the main event of UFC 310 until an injury forced him to withdraw from the bout. Now, Muhammad expects to face Rakhmonov sometime this year, and looking at the lay of the land, there might not be much left for him at 170 pounds after that.

“For me, it’s like, I’ve got Shavkat and [then] we’re still looking to see who is next,” Muhammad said. “We’re still looking to see. You’ve got Buckley, you have Ian Garry — he just lost but he’s looking for another fight — you have JDM. There are a lot of guys in the division but there’s not a clear next true contender. For me, since I had to take the long road. I had five Top 10 wins. I’m at the point where I could win two and then go up to 185, double-champ status and then be done with it.

“For me, I’m only looking ahead to what’s next. Obviously it’s Shavkat. So I just want to keep my focus on that.”