Islam Makhachev defending his lightweight title against Ilia Topuria would be a huge fight but it’s clear that one side of the matchup is more keen on the idea than the other.
Having already recorded wins over a featherweight champion on two occasions, it makes sense why Makhachev and his team might be more interested in exploring other paths.
There has been no official announcement at this time as to what the pound-for-pound king’s next move will be although a recent photo of the UFC’s Hunter Campbell and Khabib Nurmagomedov did create some conversation.
An update regarding UFC 317 did come from the side of ‘La Leyenda’ with Topuria confirming June 28 as the date that he is working towards.
With fans still questioning whether it will be the 155-pound champion versus the former featherweight titleholder in Las Vegas, a fellow lightweight suggested that Makhachev has very little to gain from this fight.
Beniel Dariush says that Islam Makhachev won’t receive credit whether he does or doesn’t fight Ilia Topuria
In a recent interview with Inside Fighting, Beneil Dariush said that Islam Makhachev might not receive the recognition he deserves regardless of what happens with Ilia Topuria.
If the lightweight champ proved to be successful in that matchup, there would be a contingent of fans who would downplay his accomplishments due to the fact that he already beat Alexander Volkanovski on two occasions.
Whilst a loss to Topuria would be a significant setback for obvious reasons, Makhachev may also receive criticism if the fight doesn’t come together because it’s such a highly anticipated clash.
It’s clearly the fight that the fans want to see, and it would be a big deal, but there isn’t a whole lot to gain for the Russian despite how highly ‘La Leyenda’ is rated.
Dariush was asked whether there’s an element of this being a lose-lose scenario for the lightweight champion and he agreed with this sentiment because of the reaction from some fans.
“There’s truth to that, for sure. It’s not like Islam is going to be the underdog in this fight. If you look at Ilia’s fights, he has been taken down. He can be taken down, it’s not impossible.
“So I don’t know, I would definitely lean towards Makhachev and it’s one of those things where the MMA community can be very toxic and this is one of those cases where it’s like, ‘Ah you gotta fight this guy.’
“It’s like bro, the champion gets to fight whoever he wants kind of.”
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Beneil Dariush suggests Islam Makhachev could choose to take some time before fighting again
Though Ilia Topuria has confirmed that he will be competing at UFC 317, we still don’t know whether Islam Makhachev has a date locked in.
There were reports, that were later shut down by his team, which suggested that the lightweight champion would be waiting to see how the welterweight title fight at UFC 315 plays out before making his next move.
With a welterweight move and fights against the likes of Topuria or other lightweight contenders like Justin Gaethje all being viable options for Makhachev, Dariush suggested in the same interview that the 33-year-old might just choose to delay his return having already fought this year.
“It’s a weird problem to have. He wants new opponents but there really isn’t anybody expect for Ilia but Ilia is a 45’er and it seems to be he’s not really interested in it so he might wait. That’s always an option too, right?
“He could wait because he just fought and he could wait a little bit and see who’s going to be available.”