{"id":618859,"date":"2026-04-21T13:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/618859\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:18:08","slug":"topuria-calls-for-makhachev-super-fight-after-ufc-white-house-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/618859\/","title":{"rendered":"Topuria calls for Makhachev super fight after UFC White House card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilia Topuria is a man with many belts on his mind. The UFC lightweight champion is set to unify the 155 pound belts against interim title holder Justin Gaethje on June 14th at the White House.<\/a> And after that, he wants to move up to 170 pounds to challenge welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n

This wouldn\u2019t be the first time Topuria has jumped up divisions as champion \u2014 he won the featherweight belt off Alexander Volkanovski, defended once against Max Holloway, then moved to 155 to take the vacant title against Charles Oliveira. The UFC took his 145 pound belt<\/a> when he moved up, but according to \u201cEl Matador,\u201d that wouldn\u2019t be the case if he moved up to 170 to challenge Makhachev.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would let me keep it,\u201d Topuria said on the Ariel Helwani Show. \u201cThis is a completely different situation than the situation that I had when I was fighting in the featherweight division. I was very honest to them. When I wanted to move up, I was like, \u2018Listen, I wanna leave this belt because I\u2019m never gonna come back to the featherweight division, because I really wanna change weight class.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I will move up to the welterweight division, it\u2019s gonna be different. Because after that fight, I would come back to the lightweight division.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal as a sportsman is always to achieve great things in the sport,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what bigger [thing] can you achieve as a sportsman to collect the third belt? So I would love to defend my belt against Justin and then had the have the opportunity to move up in the welterweight division and get my third belt. That will be my perfect scenario, but who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Georgian-Spanish sports star isn\u2019t just convinced he can beat the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Islam Makhachev. He thinks he can do it on the ground, which is where Makhachev\u2019s strengths shine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get the opportunity to fight with with someone, I always think about what can I do to really shock the world? So with Islam, to shock the world, I have to submit him. So this is what I think is gonna happen. I\u2019m gonna take him down, and I\u2019m gonna submit him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topuria is aware of how cocky that sounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that inside yourself, maybe it sounds a little bit weird, like strange,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018How are you gonna take him down, how are you gonna submit him?\u2019 But don\u2019t be surprised when you are gonna see that happen \u2026 He\u2019s good, everyone is good, Justin [Gaethje] is good. Alex [Volkanovski] is good. Charles [Oliveira] is good. Max [Holloway] is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is good, but I\u2019m different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria is a man with many belts on his mind. The UFC lightweight champion is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-618859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618859","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=618859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}