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Ilia Topuria is doing everything possible to sprint towards a UFC Lightweight title shot, but 155-pound kingpin Islam Makhachev isn’t so convinced.
On Wednesday, news broke that Topuria was vacating his Featherweight title and moving up a division permanently. He’s been talking about fighting Makhachev for months now, and many believe he would not have done so without promises of an instant title shot. In addition, industry insiders have reported that’s the UFC’s plan, and other bout announcements like Paddy Pimblett vs. Michael Chandler support this idea as well.
The hold up would appear to be Makhachev. The current pound-for-pound king has defended his title four times now, and in a fairly strange run of circumstances, three of the four defenses were against men best known for their work at 145-pounds. Makhachev has faced critique for beating up Featherweights, though it’s hardly his fault that Arman Tsarukyan and Charles Oliveira both withdrew from planned rematches at the last second.
For that reason, however, Makhachev’s manager Rizvan Magomedov wants to see Topuria victorious at Lightweight before he receives a title shot.
“Topuria vs Dustin/Charles contender fight, to prove he’s legit lightweight,” Magomedov wrote on X. “So we don’t have to defeat another ‘small featherweight’ We need big fight that make sense for everyone. We already gave chances to featherweight champ that was reigning for long time.”
It’s a reasonable request from the Makhachev camp given the optics. However, there’s not a bigger fight available to be booked at 155-pounds than Makhachev vs. Topuria. There’s financial incentive for the UFC to book it RIGHT NOW, rather than run the risk that Topuria comes up short against the likes of Poirier or “Do Bronx.”
We’ll just have to wait and see.
@DustinPoirier and I won our belts on the same… https://t.co/aVrJDSlb7X
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) February 20, 2025
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— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) February 20, 2025
