Ilia Topuria is still waiting for the UFC to give him his first fight at lightweight after having vacated the featherweight title recently, but he claims that as far as he knows, the intention is that he will be granted an immediate title shot.
“The UFC promised me I’d fight for the belt,” Topuria said at this past weekend’s WOW 17 event in Madrid, Spain. “That’s why I vacated it. And they’ve always kept their promise.”
Despite Topuria’s claim, it’s worth noting that back in late February when he first vacated his featherweight title, White didn’t appear to be certain that he would get an immediate fight against 155lb champ Islam Makachev.
“There’s still other possibilities,” White had told reporters after UFC Fight Night 252 in Seattle when asked if Topuria would be granted a title shot. “A lot of sh*t going on right now, otherwise I would have said .”
Fast-forward to a couple of weeks later and White was then talking up Justin Gaethje’s chances of fighting for the belt after he earned a unanimous decision victory over Rafael Fiziev in their rematch at UFC 303.
“I mean, what’s he ranked right now? Fourth or something, right? Third,” White said of Gaethje. “There you go, he’s still the number three ranked guy in the world so the odds of him getting the title shot are pretty good.”
And Makhachev’s coach Javier Mendes had also co-signed on that by stating that Gaethje would be the “perfect fight” for his fighter’s next title defense.
So it feels like nothing is certain at this stage, and you have to wonder whether Topuria will perhaps have second thoughts about being so quick to give up the 145lb title if he does end up having to fight another leading contender at 155lbs like Charles Oliveira first before getting to Makhachev.
