{"id":419086,"date":"2026-01-17T12:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:36:21","slug":"ilia-topuria-teases-return-in-spring-against-the-winner-of-justin-gaethje-vs-paddy-pimblett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419086\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria teases return in spring against the winner of Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Ilia Topuria apparently won\u2019t be out for long.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In November, Topuria <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/458811\/ilia-topuria-releases-statement-declaring-he-wont-fight-in-first-quarter-of-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced he would be taking a step back from MMA<\/a> to focus on ongoing issues in his personal life. As a result, the UFC booked Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett to fight for an interim lightweight title in the main event of UFC 324 next week. And while the hope has always been that Topuria would return later this year to unify the belts, \u201cEl Matador\u201d has now confirmed that\u2019s exactly his plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On Friday, Topuria went on social media to declare that he intends to win Knockout of the Year honors in 2026, a curious claim for a man currently without a timetable to return. But, \u201cEl Matador\u201d quickly revealed that he is targeting a return for the spring, where he intends to defend his belt against the interim lightweight champion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cApril-June,\u201d Topuria said in the comments. \u201cThe winner between Paddy and Justin\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Should it take place, that timeline would perfectly align with UFC White House, which goes down in June. Topuria has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/450407\/ilia-topuria-reveals-perfect-opponent-for-ufc-white-house-event\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">already declared his interest in competing at the event<\/a>, so that could make sense for his return. Of course, Topuria would most like to fight welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, a fight he\u2019s pursued for over a year, and if that somehow were to be available, Topuria also made it clear he likes his chances in the matchup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cNot even in his dreams,\u201d Topuria said to a comment saying Makhachev would submit him. \u201cHe\u2019s bad even at dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Unfortunately, the forgotten man in all of this is top lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan. Tsarukyan arguably has the best claim to a lightweight title shot of anyone, but does not appear to be close to getting it, and Topuria summed up his thoughts on Tsarukyan with one word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria apparently won\u2019t be out for long. In November, Topuria announced he would be taking a step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-419086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}