Before last year was over, Ilia Topuria (16-0) He wanted to shake the mixed martial arts (MMA) community with some strong statements. «We’ve probably seen my last fight at featherweight»he expressed in an interview in El Partidazo de Cope. And he was very serious, since it is known that weight cuts are extremely hard and he did not find any motivation within his category, having knocked out the two most legendary fighters of today in this division: Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway .
Only by looking up to lightweight were I finding names big enough to continue climbing in popularity. And he targeted two of them. First, the main legacy target: Islam Makhachev, division champion and current pound-for-pound number one (regardless of weight class). But the Russian already had a new defense of his title scheduled against Arman Tsarukyan, which will happen on January 18 at UFC 311. Therefore, he was ruled out in the short term.
So he thought of a middle name: Charles Oliveira, number two lightweight contender and a UFC superstar. A victory, Topuria thought, would open the doors to the title. But the Brazilian also had other plans: attacking the title, he would not risk his position. Not only did Oliveira’s team not want to accept that fight, but also the UFC was not going to allow Topuria to go up to lightweight to have a contender’s fight while maintaining his featherweight title. And if El Matador were stripped of that belt, His status and income per fight would drop significantly (for example, the champion has points from pay-per-view -PPV- sales).
With the two most interesting fights in the lightweight category ruled out both by the hypothetical rivals themselves and by the American company itself, in order not to prolong an inactivity that is usually harmful in this sport, Topuria will have to look at its division again, at least one more time. . The UFC has very clear plans for him: His next rival will be Alexander Volkanovskithe man from whom he took the belt in February 2024 and who, since then, has been waiting for his opportunity for direct revenge.
Furthermore, the three-letter company still owes the Australian some favors and, from Volkanovski’s team, they assure that they will only accept a fight for the title, after having ruled out participating in the UFC 312 in Sydney, pending said ‘ title shot’. Added to this is that the Australian entered the octagon after Topuria’s victory against Holloway and the Hispanic-Georgian himself accepted, symbolically, the fight by declaring that he deserved that opportunity: “He has defended it five times, if anyone He deserves the opportunity to fight again. Let’s do it”.
Thus, Topuria’s entourage tells ABC that they do not want to wait until June, when the International Fight Week is held in Las Vegas (the big week for this sport), as it would be a long time out of competition for El Matador. Taking into account that March is ‘just around the corner’, and that in May the UFC will move to Canada, an unattractive territory for the Hispanic-Georgian, UFC 314 is the perfect setting for Topuria to once again defend his belt against Volkanovski. And this evening will take place on April 12 in Miami, a ‘friendly’ territory for the champion, as it is full of Hispanics and has some roots in this location, since he has been installed in this city for short periods of time.
Therefore, as this newspaper has learned, in the absence of officially closing the fight, the plan the UFC is working on is for Topuria against Volkanovski to become the main fight on the Miami card, taking into account He notes that, in addition, it is a place of great importance for the American company.
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