What\u2019s next for Ilia Topuria? Not even the lightweight champion knows as we all continue to play the waiting game.<\/p>\n
Topuria fought just once in 2025, knocking out Charles Oliveira<\/a> to take the 155 pound belt. There had been a lot of chatter about \u201cEl Matador\u201d kicking off the UFC\u2019s big move to Paramount \/ CBS in January, but that hasn\u2019t come together. Now Topuria says he has nothing lined up and no word from the UFC on when he could compete again.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t been told anything about any fights, so I have nothing on the horizon,\u201d he told KOlmenero.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the hold-up? It could be as simple as the UFC being glacial in their scheduling. Or it might have to do with Topuria reportedly getting a divorce. It\u2019s also possible that Ilia is making demands for the biggest fights possible<\/a> and the UFC refuses to accommodate him.<\/p>\n \u201cI can sense things as always, and it also depends on me, right?\u201d he said. \u201cWhoever wants to fight, in the end, the interests of both sides come into play. We\u2019ll see what happens. I have Paddy on my mind. I want to fight Paddy, if they don\u2019t let me move up to welterweight to fight Islam, because the fight I would really like to have is against Islam in a third division.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201dMaybe I\u2019ll have a fight and then, in the summer, there\u2019s a date where they\u2019ll let me move up a weight class \u2013 and I can fight for the third belt. Or maybe they\u2019ll create a new belt called the \u2018pound-for-pound\u2019 at a catchweight, where we both meet and fight for that title. Let\u2019s see. There are many options as always, and let\u2019s see what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n As cool as that would be, the UFC can\u2019t want this game of musical chairs with their championship belts to continue. Historically they like their champs to stay put and defend against whoever they decide is next. Topuria just moved up a division, and now he wants to move up again? That\u2019s brash, and just look to how Dana White has reacted<\/a> to Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira<\/a> to see how the UFC handles big fights they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n What would we as fans like to see from Topuria in 2026? At least two fights. Any two fights! Will we get that? In today\u2019s UFC, it\u2019s not a certainty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s next for Ilia Topuria? Not even the lightweight champion knows as we all continue to play the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-305936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}