Ilia Topuria dropped a ton of information during a lengthy streaming interview with Adin Ross. One thing he couldn’t reveal: his next opponent or fight date, because he doesn’t know who or when it will be.
Topuria hasn’t fought since a June 2025 knockout of Charles Oliveira and made the decision to take a break from fighting over the winter to deal with a contentious divorce and custody situation. That was resolved at the start of February, and a month later “El Matador” still doesn’t have a clear timeline for return.
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“In summer,” Topuria told Ross. “Hopefully. If I’m fighting in the White House, I don’t know. I don’t know. You don’t say to the UFC where they have to put you and they don’t tell you how you fight. This is basically how it works. As of right now I have no f–king idea what’s going on. I’m ready.”
The obvious opponent would be Justin Gaethje, who just beat Paddy Pimblett for an interim lightweight title at UFC 324 in January.
“I thought [Paddy] was going to win the fight,” Topuria said. “The fight was f–king horrible. I think they both looked really bad. Both of them. I think [I’ll fight Justin next]. I think so.”
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But any other name is fine too. Topuria made it clear that the only thing stopping a potential Arman Tsarukyan fight these days is the UFC.
“If they call me, if they want me to fight with Arman, no problem,” he said. “I fought with so many tough opponents. I don’t want to fight Arman? I don’t care. If they give me that fight, I’m fighting him. All of them. Same night.”
The fight he’s most interested in at this moment, though? It’s the same fight Adin Ross suggested was what the fans really desired: a match-up against welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.
“[Islam] is what I want too,” Topuria said. “The perfect scenario for me would be fighting him in the welterweight division because that way I’d be able to collect my third belt.”
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“But also it would be great scenario to fight between 155 and 170 and create a new belt, why not, call it ‘Pound For Pound.’ Because he’s the No. 1, I’m the No. 2. Right now for me, I’m the No. 1. But yeah, you put two of the best guys in the world for the Pound For Pound belt, in the middle. Whoever wins is the best.”
Whatever the UFC decides, they’ll have to keep in mind Ilia Topuria is not like Merab Dvalishvili, who tried to defend his title four times in one year.
“Everyone has his own style, if that makes him happy, he has to do that,” Topuria said of Dvalishvili, a fellow Georgian. “For me, I don’t like to fight three or four times a year because I really enjoy having a proper training camp. I never go into the Octagon with an injury or something like that. I always go at my 100%. When I go inside the Octagon, I really want to fight.”
