Credits: Championship Rounds' X account.

‘He Moved Up To Fight for the Belt’ – Coach Diego Lima Feels Ilia Topuria Wouldn’t Vacate Belt Without Lightweight Title Guarantee!

Credits: Championship Rounds' X account.

After vacating the featherweight title, Ilia Topuria and his team are on the hunt for the lightweight belt which is currently held by Islam Makhachev. After going undefeated in every fight he fought in, Topuria believes he has what it takes to beat Makhachev for the title but there’s a slight problem.

Makhachev and his team believes that Topuria cannot just challenge the champ for a fight immediately and instead needs to fight some of the lightweight contenders and climb up the ranks like others do. The back-and-forth between the two and their teams has not stopped and we still don’t know if the fight will happen anytime soon.

Recently, Topuria tweeted on X and it read “When we announce it, you won’t believe it.” This has led to a lot of speculations as in who Topuria could potentially take on next. Since his tweet included an element of surprise, we tried to think of who he could fight next but ultimately failed to come up with a name.

Nevertheless, their have been rumors swirling about a potential fight between Topuria and Charles Oliveira. However, the Brazilian’s team previously said that if the challenger does not have the belt, Oliveira would not be interested.

Also Read: Jan Blachowicz Reveals Future Plans Including Ankalaev And Pereira Ahead Of Fight Night!

Diego Lima Thinks Topuria Has Moved Up To Fight for the Belt and Nothing Else

Charles Oliveira’s coach Diego Lima believes that Topuria and his team must have thoroughly planned the move up to the lightweight division and would not have vacated the featherweight belt if there wasn’t some kind of assurance given, to fight for the lightweight belt.

“Topuria hasn’t vacated the featherweight title without some compromise, without some advanced negotiation. I think Topuria only moves up to fight for the belt,” Lima said.

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Topuria is a flawless 16-0-0 so far in his MMA career whereas Makhachev is 27-1-0. These two fighters have been going at each other for months on social media and the Georgian has even promised on multiple occasions that he will knock the lightweight champ out.

So far Dana White has stated that he wants a super fight between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall to happen sometime in the upcoming summer but has not revealed any plans for Topuria and Makhachev. Outside of the Jones vs Aspinall fight, Makhachev vs Topuria is the most anticipated and fans want to see the two clash for the lightweight title.

Ilia Topuria says Islam Makhachev is afraid to fight him 😳

"He's afraid. Of course he's afraid… as usual, it's an easy fight until they put your name on the contract.

We all know, if it were that easy and if I'm small as he says, he would already share the octagon with me."… pic.twitter.com/AG3Z8KjnfY
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 15, 2025

Also Read: UFC Fight Night 256 – UFC’s Debut in Des Moines Brings Exciting Match-Ups!

Ilia Topuria

Islam Makhachev

UFC

Eric Divakaran

nba

nfl

mma

I cover the National Football League and things cannot get better than that. I always dreamed to play football or basketball professionally since I’m built like a Running Back. But now that I can’t, since I’m technically in the “Unc” age, I thought why not pick a career in sports industry? So here I am, doing what I love, and hoping that the Commanders win the Super Bowl. I give love to players when it’s due, but can be critical about their performances at the same time. Enough about me, now let my articles do all the talking.