If Diego Lopes
is to be believed, the era of two-division champions is over in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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While some fighters have won belts in two weight classes, only a
few have enjoyed the privilege of holding two belts simultaneously,
such as Conor
McGregor, Daniel
Cormier and Amanda
Nunes. However, Lopes claims that will no longer be the
case.
Featherweight champ Ilia
Topuria recently vacated his belt to move up to lightweight,
setting the stage for Lopes to face Alexander
Volkanovski for the vacant 145-pound title at UFC
314. UFC CEO Dana White announced that Topuria felt he had
accomplished enough at 145 pounds and has difficulty making the
weight now.
However, Lopes claims Topuria was forced to vacate his belt in
order to move up to lightweight.
“They were very clear to us that they said that they are no longer
giving [fighters the] chance to jump from one weight class to
another,” Lopes told ESPN. “If you want to move up, you have to vacate your
title. This is what UFC has said to all champions who are planning
to move up a weight class. They will no longer have the status of
double champion simultaneously.”
However, White disputed that claim during the UFC
Seattle post-fight press conference on Saturday night.
“Unless you think you can defend your title,” White said. “Listen,
if there’s a guy that thinks he can do it and wants to defend both
belts and has accomplished all these great things, I would have no
problem with it. You’re going to be busy.”
Topuria won the title by knocking out Alexander at UFC 298 last
year and defended it by handing Max
Holloway his only stoppage loss at UFC 308. The undefeated
Georgian-Spaniard then began eyeing a move up to 155 pounds, citing
a lack of fresh contenders at featherweight. While Lopes is fine
with Topuria moving up, he refuses to accept that there is no
competition left for the former champ at featherweight.
“If [Topuria] feels he has nothing else to do in the division,
well, he should move forward with his career,” Lopes said. “I know
that in the division we have very good fighters that could give
very good fights against him. We can even put him in serious
trouble or even defeat him. But if he feels that because he
defeated Max and Volk [Alexander
Volkanovski], who are legends in the division, his work is
already done here, well, it’s fine.”