Another crazy week in the UFC has come to an end; although it’ll certainly take a while for fans to come to grips with ‘El Matador’ officially moving on from featherweight.
Earlier this week, the MMA world was sent into a frenzy when it was announced that Ilia Topuria had vacated his UFC title in favor of a long-awaited move up to 155lbs.
Almost immediately after that news hit the airwaves, fans began to speculate on whether this meant Ilia Topuria would jump the queue to face the dominant Dagestani reigning over his new division – Dana White has the latest news.
Dana White provides vague update on Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev
Speaking after the controversial UFC Fight Night Seattle main event, Dana White was asked whether Ilia Topuria had vacated the featherweight title himself, or if the UFC had stripped him of his shiny gold belt.
“He did that – he said, ‘I’ve done everything I can do here, I’m ready to move up’ and so he vacated it,” explained White.
“He said that he shouldn’t be holding up anybody’s opportunities and you know, I always respect it when guys do that.”
When asked if the promotion is now looking to book Topuria vs Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title, White chose to keep his cards close to his chest.
“There are still other possibilities, there’s a lot of s— going on right now, otherwise I would’ve said [that fight’s on].”
The potential undefeated vs undefeated title bout has divided the wider MMA community, but also seemingly split Makhachev’s own team – with his manager contradicting his coach’s endorsement of Topuria as a possible next opponent.
“Topuria vs. Dustin/Charles contender fight, to prove he’s a legit lightweight. So we don’t have to defeat another ‘small featherweight,’” said manager Rizvan Magomedov on X.
“We need big fights that make sense for everyone… We already gave chances to a featherweight champ that was reigning for a long time.”
Malki Kawa, Topuria’s manager, was quick to hit back at those comments and was keen to “get the facts right” in a video shared to his Instagram page.
“He knocked out [Alexander] Volkanovski in his first opportunity to knock him out, the fight wasn’t close…. Then he knocks out Max Holloway who happens to be one of the greatest 145lb fighters of all time.
“I’m not sure why he doesn’t deserve a shot at 155lbs, but I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t want my client to fight Ilia Topuria either.”
Dana White reacts to UFC Fight Night main event controversy
Whilst Topuria vs Makhachev remains one of the best fights that the UFC could make right now; that’s tomorrow’s news – tonight’s all about Henry Cejudo vs Song Yadong.
The main event of UFC Seattle ended in controversial circumstances after the former double champion was left unable to continue after a nasty double eye-poke.
“I have no idea [what he was thinking], I’ll let him answer all those questions,” said White on Cejudo’s decision to withdraw after the foul.
“Song looked good, but yeah, only he can answer those questions. I don’t know if he thought, ‘If I stop here, is this a DQ or a No Contest?’.”
Both Cejudo and Song agreed to run it back in the octagon, although White wasn’t too keen on the idea of a rematch.