I will not leave the title vacant. The
decision to move up to the next category is entirely mine. I
haven’t had any conversations with the UFC yet, so everything is
still to be decided. Stop celebrating because I’m not going
anywhere. I have conquered my division and I will do…— Ilia
Topuria (@Topuriailia)
December 12, 2024
Ilia
Topuria is being cryptic about his plans to move up to
lightweight.
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The
Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight king recently
revealed that we might have seen the last of him at 145 due to a
lack of fresh challengers. Topuria (16-0) said he plans to move up
to lightweight and face Charles
Oliveira, eventually win the title and retire before he turns
30. “El Matador” attracted the attention of lightweights like
Dustin
Poirier, Paddy
Pimblett and Renato
“Money” Moicano by announcing his plans to move up to 155.
Meanwhile, Diego
Lopes, who was originally rallying for a featherweight title
shot against Topuria, shifted focus to former champ Alexander
Volkanovski.
However, Topuria more recently warned everyone to hold their
horses. The Georgian Spaniard says he is not leaving the 145-pound
belt vacant and is yet to discuss his lightweight plans with the
UFC. But the 27-year-old also vows to capture the title at
lightweight at some point.
“I will not leave the title vacant,” Topuria said on X. “The
decision to move up to the next category is entirely mine. I
haven’t had any conversations with the UFC yet, so everything is
still to be decided. Stop celebrating because I’m not going
anywhere. I have conquered my division and I will do the same in
the next one.”
Meanwhile, Topuria’s coach Jorge Climent Tommasi sounds confident
about the champ’s move to lightweight. According to Tommasi,
Topuria is tired of cutting weight for 145, which is consistently
getting harder. Tommasi claims “El Matador” sometimes walks around
as heavy as 187.
“He has to cut weight and it’s very hard every time we do it… He
don’t want to do this anymore… I see Ilia in 85 kilos and he needs
to be 66… We do very big weight cut,” Tommasi told Submission
Radio.
Topuria won the title with a knockout win over Alexander
Volkanovski at UFC 298 this past February. The undefeated champ
then defended his title by handing Max
Holloway his first knockout loss at UFC 308 in October.