Ilia Topuria has lightweight gold in his crosshairs.
The now-former UFC featherweight champion surprised the MMA world two weeks ago when the promotion announced he would vacate the 145-pound title in order to move up to the lightweight division. Along with the news came plans for a clash between former featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes for the now-vacant title at UFC 314 in April.
After the announcement, Topuria’s next step felt obvious: An immediate title shot against the reigning 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev. But that fight announcement didn’t immediately follow the others, leaving some open questions about the UFC’s plan for a lightweight Topuria.
Would Topuria really be forced to fight a lightweight contender first? UFC CEO Dana White alluded to the possibility when asked about Topuria that week. But ask Malki Kawa, Topuria’s representative at First Round Management, and he’ll tell you that he doesn’t see how a Makhachev pairing isn’t the next move.
“No one told us we couldn’t fight for the [lightweight] title,” Kawa said Wednesday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “To this day, no one has said, ‘You’re not fighting for the title.’ I’ll leave it there out of respect to everybody else on the other side. No one has told me, ‘No, this is not happening.’
“I don’t know if it even makes sense for them as a promotion to allow him to fight anybody else when he’s a champion. If we’re being honest, this is probably the biggest fight you can make right now outside of [Jon] ‘Bones’ [Jones] vs. [Tom] Aspinall. So I don’t know if there’s another fight out there that’s bigger than this fight. This is the biggest fight you can make.”
Topuria, 28, expressed intentions to eventually move up to lightweight as soon as he began his featherweight championship reign following a second-round knockout of Volkanovski in February 2024. He followed up on that performance by knocking out former champion Max Holloway in Round 3 of their UFC 308 clash this past October — in the process, becoming the first to ever knock out Holloway.
It’s been a star-making run for Topuria to reach a flawless 16-0 record. Should he dethrone Uncrowned’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Makhachev, to secure his second divisional UFC title, he’ll be well on his way to becoming one of the biggest names in the sport’s recent history.
“Here’s what the fear is for a lot of people: What if he does beat Islam?” Kawa asked. “Then you’re talking about, this is the biggest star in the sport at that point, in a long, long time. I don’t mean like any of these other guys aren’t stars. I’m talking about, this guy will start to reach that stratosphere that Conor [McGregor] got to, especially if he wins by KO. This guy has that Mike Tyson-esque thing in him, and if he continues to fight this way, I just don’t know how we’re not looking at the same type of thing as Conor McGregor.”
Topuria has fought at lightweight before. His fourth UFC bout was a one-off that took place in the 155-pound division back in March 2022. Facing England’s Jai Herbert, Topuria weathered some early danger then starched Herbert with a wicked second-round knockout at the 67-second mark of that fight.
Ireland’s McGregor is still the biggest star MMA has known, and the support of his home country helped vault him to superstardom early in his UFC run. Holding roots in Georgia and Spain, Topuria has been touted as the most likely talent to get close to a McGregor-type appeal as an international MMA star.
After what Topuria has already accomplished, Kawa believes that transcendent status is very much achievable.
“I still think he is the next guy, he is the next Conor. That’s kind of a part of what he’s doing,” Kawa said. “You come into the UFC, you get to a title fight within six fights, you go beat arguably the greatest featherweight to ever fight at featherweight. All respect to Volkanovski, because he was a hell of a champion and he went up and fought at 155 [pounds]. Ilia challenged him, knocked him out. No one at ’45 had ever done that to him. Then you go fight Max Holloway, who no one had ever done that to him ever, right? No matter who it is at any weight class.
“The truth is that the weight cut was hard for [Topuria]. When you’ve been in this business for as long as we’ve been in it, you kind of learn certain things. The longevity of fighters, especially at the highest level, when you talk about being a champion, you’re talking about a guy who had to fight the Volkanovkis, the Charles Oliveiras, the Islams, the Maxs — you’re talking about fighting the best guys in the world. So if you’re cutting all that weight, what you’re basically also doing is taking years off your fighting life. This guy’s looking at longevity. He’s looking at the fact that it’s almost a 50-pound cut every time. It’s time to move up to 155.
“I’m confident that Islam will accept it,” Kawa concluded. “I’m confident that we’ll be fighting for that belt, but it’s really not on us. It’s on them. That’s kind of where we’re at with it.”
