After knocking out both Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway last year, Ilia Topuria finished 2024 as the majority of people’s Fighter of the Year.
When Ilia Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 to become the new featherweight champion, he immediately catapulted himself into superstardom.
The young Spaniard then accelerated that even further when he became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway at UFC 308, defeating two of the weight classes greats, back-to-back.
Following Islam Makhachev‘s recent title defense against Renato Moicano at UFC 311, Topuria once again hinted at moving up in weight to take on the dominant Russian.
Ilia Topuria offers an update on his next fight
Following his win over Holloway, Topuria had an impromptu face-off with Volkanovski, hinting that the two would have a rematch.
The two will, in fact, face off across from each other this Saturday at UFC 312 as Volkanovski will be in the corner of Colby Thicknesse and Topuria in the corner of his brother, Aleksandre when they fight at featherweight.
However, despite all signs having led to a rematch between the two, ‘El Matador’ has once again hinted that he may potentially move up to lightweight for his next fight.
“We’ll see what’s gonna happen. Me personally, what I wanna do is to move up to 155lbs because I know by fact that I can become a two-weight world champion,” Topuria told Main Event TV.
“Islam is a great fighter, he is number one pound-for-pound… So I know that I can do with him whatever I want to do with him because I know that I’m much better than him.”
Another reason why ‘El Matador’ would like to move up in weight is because he believes a rematch against Alexander ‘The Great’ would go the same way their first fight went.
“I don’t wanna do it again because I like Volk and I know what’s gonna happen if we face each other again. Of course, it’s the same thing… Maybe the next time instead of knocking him out I will submit him to have different types of clips.”
Alexander Volkanovski reacts to Topuria’s desire to move up
For several months now, it has been rumored that Topuria and Volkanovski would rematch in Miami at UFC 314 and Volk has revealed that the UFC has a date in mind that they want him to return.
“I mean, to be honest, I think (the UFC) are trying to figure that out. We’ve got a date that we want, they know I want to fight, they want me to fight, they want me to fight for the belt.
“Maybe they’re trying to organize something they think they’ve got to see what’s going on, you heard from him but if not, I’ll fight whoever for that belt, we’ll see what happens,” Volk told Main Event TV.
With the Australian having previously attempted to become a double champion himself, he isn’t entirely dismissive of the Spaniard’s desire to move up.
“Of course, I don’t want to get in the way of someone’s (dreams). I want that fight so it’s gonna suck because I’d love that but that’s just if the UFC wants it and he’s pushing for it and they can make that happen, then good on him but if they can’t make it happen, stop wasting time.”
If Topuria does in fact move up in weight, it is unlikely that the promotion will strip him and will likely instead add an interim belt into the mix.
Diego Lopes has previously stated his desire to fight Volaknovski and that would likely be the fight the promotion would put together if Topuria does move up.