Undefeated featherweight fighter Movsar Evloev has made it clear that he’s determined to fight current champion Ilia Topuria, even if he has to follow him up a weight class to do so.
Topuria had unsettled the division late last year when he claimed that he was contemplating vacating the title in order to pursue the lightweight belt instead, but regardless of that Evloev is remaining focused on two goals – winning the title and beating Topuria.
“I don’t know what’s going on. For me, it doesn’t matter who will be my next opponent. Even if the champion moves up, he will leave the title,” Evloev told MMAJunkie. “I will get the title and then I will follow him. Lightweight is not too far for me.
“Even if he moves up, I will take the belt first because this is my first goal. So then I will go after him, even if he goes to middleweight. It doesn’t matter. He’s not a big guy. I don’t need to cut the weight to beat this guy.“
With all that being said though, Evloev suspects that Topuria is just bluffing, and that he’s no intention of moving up to lightweight yet.
“I need his head on my list. Belt is first, but I don’t think that he will leave the title. He’s not going to go to lightweight. He will defend his belt again soon. I don’t know when, but we’ll see.”
The 4th ranked Evloev is currently 19-0 in his career, including nine victories in the Octagon so far, beating the likes of Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen, Diego Lopes and Dan Ige along the way.
As such he’s confident that he’s the man to end Topuria’s own perfect 16-0 record, which includes 8 UFC wins over the likes of Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski, Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell.
“He’s a great fighter, but he’s not an unbeatable fighter,” Evloev said. “I’m that guy who can beat this guy. Just make the fight between me and him, and I will prove my words.”
