Ilia Topuria Gunning for Islam Makhachev Match in 2025

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight king Ilia
Topuria is rallying hard for a double champ bid against
lightweight champ Islam
Makhachev.

Topuria (15-0) has recently been exchanging words with Makhachev
(26-1) and his team. The feud started with a Q&A session where
Topuria said he would get the better of Makhachev in a street fight
but would rather do it inside the Octagon to avoid paying the
Dagestani’s medical bills. Makhachev’s teammate Usman
Nurmagomedov fired back at Topuria, who took a dig the Bellator
MMA lightweight champ’s recent drug testing failure. Abubakar
Nurmagomedov and Tagir
Ulanbekov from the Dagestani crew also chimed in to defend
their teammates.

In an interview with Match TV, Makhachev warned Topuria about
crossing personal boundaries, while admitting that the
Georgian-Spaniard hasn’t crossed any yet. Meanwhile, Topuria is
slated to make his first title defense against Max
Holloway in the main event at
UFC 308 on Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Makhachev
advised “El Matador” to defend his throne at least once before
plotting a double champ bid.

“If Topuria continues in the same spirit, he may play himself out,”
Makhachev said. “Something may happen. So far I have not seen
anyone cross any personal boundaries, so far nothing like that has
happened. He needs to focus on his weight class and defending his
belt at least once.”

Topuria responded quickly, urging Makhachev to leave his teammates
out of the fray. Topuria called out the UFC P4P king to settle the
feud like adults inside the Octagon sometime next year on X.

“I don’t need to cross lines but it seems like the kids that hang
out with you will try to cross a line they can’t come back from.
Let’s leave the kids out of it and settle it like adults inside the
Octagon [in] 2025.”

Topuria knocked out Alexander
Volkanovski to win the featherweight title at UFC 298 in
February, recording his fifth finish in seven UFC wins. Meanwhile,
Makhachev is coming off his third successful title defense against
Dustin
Poirier via fifth-round submission at UFC 303 in June. The
Dagestani standout had since been recovering from a hand injury
sustained against Poirier, who gave him his toughest test since his
lone pro loss against Adriano
Martins in his UFC debut in 2015.