ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – OCTOBER 26:Ilia Topuria of Spain prepares to face Max Holloway in … More
Ilia Topuria is seemingly set to return to the Octagon at UFC 317 on International Fight Week, but the former featherweight champion’s opponent is still a mystery. According to multiple reports, Topuria’s fight will be for a championship, and according to Eurosport’s Alvaro Colmenero, the fight will not be for an interim title.
It will be for an undisputed or vacant championship.
There’s a lot to unpack there, but here are the scenarios. Topuria, who vacated the featherweight title, could be moving up to face current lightweight champion and pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev.
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – OCTOBER 21: Islam Makhachev of Russia reacts after his knockout … More
That’s probably the biggest fight to make in MMA–besides Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall. Makhachev also has designs on moving up in weight to go to welterweight. However, his friend and recent training partner Belal Muhammad is champion at 170 pounds. Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s entire team have refused to fight each other, so that would seemingly put a halt to those possibilities.
It would also likely mean Makhachev is staying put at lightweight–for now.
Because of this dynamic, despite the fact that we’ve heard rumors of Topuria facing Charles Oliveira or even Arman Tsarukyan, challenging Makhachev for the lightweight title seems like the most logical fight to make.
Topuria has dismissed Oliveira before, so there’s reason to believe that matchup may not excite him.
Topuria has been one of the UFC’s fastest-rising stars over the last 18 months. With back-to-back finishes of Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, he carved a path through the featherweight elite, only to vacate the belt in anticipation of a lightweight move. Topuria has seemingly set his sights on Makhachev, though he thinks Nurmagomedov wants his pupil to avoid the smoke.
Topuria posted about a surprise announcement two months back, but it doesn’t seem as though anything out of the ordinary is on the horizon.
If Topuria and Makhachev clash, it can be billed as a battle for the pound-for-pound championship. The winner should hold the crown without dispute. Without question, UFC 317 needs something big, and a Topuria-Makhachev fight is probably the best fight to make.
What complicates the picture are Makhachev’s own ambitions.
While he’s widely considered the best lightweight in the world, there have been rumblings that he wants to test himself at welterweight. With Belal Muhammad now holding that belt, it’s unlikely the training partners will square off, which makes staying at 155 the most viable option for Makhachev—at least for now.
At some point, Makhachev will want to move up. Perhaps that time will come if and when Muhammad loses the title–which could happen next month when he defends his title against Jack Della Maddalena in Canada at UFC 316.
Muhammad could also elect to move up to middleweight where some believe he could challenge for a championship at 185 pounds.
In any case, an official announcement is forthcoming from the UFC on Topuria’s next fight. When it drops, it will become the biggest news and most anticipated fight on the UFC’s upcoming calendar of fights.