{"id":90271,"date":"2025-08-23T03:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T03:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90271\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T03:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T03:27:07","slug":"video-islam-makhachev-breathes-life-into-ilia-topuria-super-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90271\/","title":{"rendered":"Video! Islam Makhachev Breathes Life Into Ilia Topuria Super Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Fight fans may finally get their wish to see a superfight between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and former 155-pound king Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As of now, Makhachev is expected to fight UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena at some point later this year (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/8\/3\/24479845\/video-khabib-nurmagomedov-leaks-ufcs-grand-plan-for-islam-makhachev-madison-square-garden\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">likely at UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden<\/a> in New York). After that, Makhachev is open to finally meeting the undefeated Topuria inside of the Octagon in a clash of pound-for-pound bests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Before Makhachev officially moved up to welterweight the two fighters were aligning for a massive superfight. Topuria had racked off back-to-back knockout wins over featherweight legends Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway and was looking to become a UFC double champion. Ultimately, Makhachev <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/5\/14\/24430157\/why-did-islam-makhachev-vacate-ufc-lightweight-title-hes-beaten-everyone-division-literally\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left his title behind<\/a> in pursuit of welterweight gold and Topuria won the vacant lightweight belt with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/29\/24457988\/full-fight-video-highlights-ilia-topuria-vs-charles-oliveira-ufc-317-results-knockout-ppv-pimblett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">knockout victory<\/a> over Charles Oliveira.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">During a recent interview (via Ushatayka), Makhachev breathed some life into a future matchup with Topuria. Of course, Makhachev will need to handle business against JDM his next time out, but after that he\u2019s willing to discuss a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/20\/24452954\/ilia-topuria-ready-to-chase-islam-makhachev-up-to-welterweight-for-third-title\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">potential clash with \u201cEl Matador.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201dThere\u2019s some intrigue with Topuria,\u201c said Makhachev when asked who is next after Della Maddalena. \u201dI\u2019m also interested in that fight. Maybe we can make some kind of super fight. Or, as I said, we\u2019ll see about the weight.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This may be music to the ears of fight fans, but Makhachev might be putting the cart before the horse. That\u2019s because JDM is more dangerous than people give him credit for, having just defeated Belal Muhammad for the UFC welterweight title to extend his unbeaten UFC record to 8-0. Makhachev could very well cough it up against Della Maddalena later this year and forever put an end to the super fight talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fight fans may finally get their wish to see a superfight between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-90271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90271","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=90271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}