UFC Lightweight kingpin Ilia Topuria will defend his belt versus Justin Gaethje next month at the UFC White House card.
Why isn’t Topuria fighting Islam Makhachev, the pound-for-pound and Welterweight king that has been discussed as a possible opponent for years now? That’s a matter of some debate. Obviously, there’s currently a different in weight class, but Makhachev spent plenty of years competing at 155 pounds. Previously, Topuria has accused Makhachev of ducking the matchup, while the Islam camp claims that “El Matador” purposefully priced himself out of that fight.
Advertisement
Now, Topuria has changed his tune in a bit. He no longer is blaming Makhachev for avoiding the matchup and instead thinks its the UFC’s fault.
“I don’t think that it’s because of him that the fight is not happening,” Topuria told DeepCut (via MMA Fighting). “I truly believe that is that the UFC doesn’t want to make it happen. I think so.
“But at the same time trying to teach something to the UFC how to make the fights and all that, that’s a little bit difficult because the answer they have, which is correct, is that we don’t need your opinion [laughs]. We build whatever we have in our way. So we do it however we want it. And it’s completely understandable.”
Why would the UFC be against such a high-profile matchup? Recently, the promotion has taken more of a stance against super fight matchups between champions, forcing vacant belts rather than simultaneous titles. Perhaps the promotion doesn’t want to hold up two very competitive division … or maybe the cost is just too high.
Advertisement
Either way, Topuria isn’t overly upset. He would like to fight Makhachev but doesn’t see the fight as mandatory for his career.
“For me personally, it wouldn’t change anything [if this fight doesn’t happen],” Topuria said. “I don’t hate him, I don’t have anything personal for him. The thing is that he achieved great things in the sport. He’s a double champion like me. And if you do that crossover, me and Islam, it will be one of the biggest fights in the UFC history without any doubt. But if that fight never happens, I will be happy and proud about myself. Anyways, I don’t need Islam to feel realized or to feel happy or to feel proud about myself, you know what I mean?”
