{"id":327,"date":"2025-06-20T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T22:00:08","slug":"ilia-topuria-going-to-push-for-ufc-welterweight-title-shot-if-islam-makhachev-becomes-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria \u2018going to push\u2019 for UFC welterweight title shot if Islam Makhachev becomes champ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilia Topuria<\/a> knows he has a big fight ahead of him at UFC 317<\/a>, but if he becomes a two-division champion, and Islam Makhachev<\/a> accomplishes the same later this year, Topuria says he will do everything he can for a shot at history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Islam becomes the welterweight world champion, for sure I\u2019m going to push for that shot also,\u201d Topuria said during a pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas (h\/t The Mac Life<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Topuria vacated the featherweight belt for a move to lightweight, and a hope of facing Makhachev for the 155-pound belt. Instead, he faces former champ Charles Oliveira<\/a> in the main event of the UFC\u2019s annual International Fight Week card.<\/p>\n

Makhachev had the same goal in mind, and vacated his belt for a move up to 170, where he\u2019ll challenge new champ Jack Della Maddalena<\/a> later this year. <\/p>\n

Should both guys accomplish their goals, Topuria believes the fight can still happen with Makhachev at either weight class. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how he does in the welterweight division,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cIf he wins the title, and I win the title in the lightweight division, maybe I move up or he comes down to the lightweight division and we have the fight that everyone wants to see.\u201d <\/p>\n

Oliveira gets to fight for UFC gold for the first time since a submission loss to Makhachev for the vacant belt at UFC 280<\/a> in October 2022. \u201cDu Bronx\u201d became champ with a stoppage win over Michael Chandler<\/a> at UFC 262<\/a>, followed by a finish of Dustin Poirier<\/a> in his first title defense at UFC 269<\/a>. Oliveira went on to submit Justin Gaethje<\/a> in his next fight at UFC 274<\/a>, but was stripped of the title after missing weight for the bout. <\/p>\n

After recently dominating Chandler in their second matchup at UFC 309<\/a> this past November, Oliveira gets his chance to become champ for a second time. For Topuria, his first choice was Makhachev, but he\u2019ll take the opportunity he has in front of him to make a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I wanted to face him because he was the guy who was dominating everyone in that weight division,\u201d Topuria explained. \u201cBut at the end of the day, I can\u2019t control what they do. The only thing I can control is what I do, so I wanted to move up, I wanted to fight for a title, and this is what I\u2019m doing. He decided to move up also, so I can\u2019t do anything else, and go and fight whoever wants to fight me. …<\/p>\n

\u201c[He moved up] because he has his own goals, is what I think.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria knows he has a big fight ahead of him at UFC 317, but if he becomes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[558,559,561,381,204,550,555,548,556,105,557,560,551,554,62,197,447,549,552,562,67,132,68,553],"class_list":{"0":"post-327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-becomes","9":"tag-champ","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-for","12":"tag-front-page","13":"tag-going","14":"tag-if","15":"tag-ilia","16":"tag-islam","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-makhachev","19":"tag-mma","20":"tag-push","21":"tag-shot","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-title","24":"tag-to","25":"tag-topuria","26":"tag-ufc","27":"tag-ufc-news","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-welterweight"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114717944926426695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}