Ilia Topuria has laid out an ambitious roadmap: defend his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje on June 14th, then move up to welterweight to challenge Islam Makhachev in pursuit of a third UFC belt.
Topuria is scheduled to unify the 155-pound belts with interim champion Gaethje at the White House, and says he has already discussed his next move with the promotion. “They would let me keep it,” Topuria said of his lightweight title if he moves to 170 pounds.
Topuria contrasted his current situation with his previous run at featherweight, where he captured the belt from Alexander Volkanovski, defended it once against Max Holloway, then moved to 155 to win the vacant title against Charles Oliveira. “This is a completely different situation than the situation that I had when I was fighting in the featherweight division. I was very honest to them. When I wanted to move up, I was like, ‘Listen, I wanna leave this belt because I’m never gonna come back to the featherweight division, because I really wanna change weight class.’” The UFC took his 145-pound belt when he moved up to lightweight.
Now, Topuria says a welterweight move would be temporary. “But if I will move up to the welterweight division, it’s gonna be different. Because after that fight, I would come back to the lightweight division.”
“My goal as a sportsman is always to achieve great things in the sport,” Topuria said. “So what bigger [thing] can you achieve as a sportsman to collect the third belt? So I would love to defend my belt against Justin and then had the have the opportunity to move up in the welterweight division and get my third belt. That will be my perfect scenario, but who knows?”
Looking ahead to a potential clash with Makhachev, Topuria was explicit about how he sees it playing out. “When I get the opportunity to fight with with someone, I always think about what can I do to really shock the world? So with Islam, to shock the world, I have to submit him. So this is what I think is gonna happen. I’m gonna take him down, and I’m gonna submit him.”
He acknowledged the skepticism but doubled down on his confidence. “I know that inside yourself, maybe it sounds a little bit weird, like strange,” Topuria said. “‘How are you gonna take him down, how are you gonna submit him?’ But don’t be surprised when you are gonna see that happen … He’s good, everyone is good, Justin [Gaethje] is good. Alex [Volkanovski] is good. Charles [Oliveira] is good. Max [Holloway] is good. Everyone is good, but I’m different.”
