After tearing through the UFC’s featherweight division and claiming the throne, Spanish-Georgian Ilia Topuria announced he would vacate the belt for a shot at the lightweight title held by none other than the Dagestani, Islam Makhachev. ‘La Leyenda’ claims that the UFC promised him the shot on the condition that he vacate the 145-pound division title. And the MMA community is abuzz with predictions and analyses about how this fight would go down between these two high-level athletes.

Although it’s a safe bet that Topuria will be overwhelmed by the size difference and the intense wrestling of Makhachev, considering he is a featherweight, we cannot count out the ex-featherweight champ so easily. Size difference aside, Topuria has managed to knock out Alexander Volkanovski, the man who gave Makhachev one of the toughest fights of his career, and even became the first man to knock out Max Holloway in his very next fight, who has the same frame and build as a lightweight. What’s more, ‘La Leyenda’ has gone up against a proper lightweight at 155 lbs, and secured a KO win there as well, against Jai Herbert.

Touching upon this aspect of the fight, UFC veteran Dominick Cruz spoke to sports journalist Helen Yee as he showed confidence in Topuria, saying: “Yeah, he has the tools. It’s its um, keep it on the feet, dictate the range, and keep Makhachev on his heels. If you keep you keep a wrestler on his heels, it’s hard for them to time the shot. Never in wrestling, in the pure sport of wrestling, are you to be moving back. If you’re moving back, the point usually gets scored for the other guy.”

The former UFC bantamweight champ added, “It’s not part of the fundamentals of grappling to be moving back. You want to be moving forward. So if you keep Makhachev moving back with a good striking defense and he’s able to stuff a couple of the takedowns, I think he can get the momentum going in his favor and gives himself a really good chance at it.”

While Ilia Topuria has his eyes set on the prize, Dominick Cruz reminds Ilia that he cannot look past any attributes of Makhachev. The Dagestani has an amazing wrestling and sambo background, while his striking has also been improving with each fight. Cruz, without undermining Topuria, explained that the advantage will always be with Makhachev, but if Topuria can neutralize the threat by keeping the Russian wrestler on his feet, we may see ‘La Leyenda’ with the belt and his hands raised.

On the 166th episode of The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Hour, Ilia Topuria sat down with Joe Rogan to talk about the potential bout as he addressed the heat around his next fight and shared his thoughts. Let’s see what he had to say.

Ilia Topuria talks about the Islam Makhachev fight on JRE 166

“Islam Makachev is huge, I mean that guy, how he makes 155 is, I don’t understand it. Every time I stand next to him I’m like how are you 155. He’s got to be 190ish in the 190 range, He’s got to be. That’s what he looks like to me. I never saw him in person. Yeah he’s thick. He’s thick and big. I mean he’s not a small. He’s not 155lbs man. It’s just so silly.”, ‘La Leyenda’ said in his conversation with Joe Rogan.

As Topuria talked about Makhachev, even he had to admit that his opponent is indeed massive in size, and how he fights at lightweight is a mystery not just for us but La Leyenda too. Ilia also revealed his walk-around weight is 180 pounds which makes a huge difference to the perspectives of the fight as this means he isn’t as small compared to Makhachev as one may think.

Topuria has his eyes set on the lightweight title and since the UFC promised him a shot, he will accept nothing less. When Joe Rogan asked the Spanish-Georgian if he would take a no.1 contender fight if Islam rejects the title fight. Topuria, straight up, rejected the question and proceeded to say: “I wouldn’t fight for a number one contender fight. Look, also it’s the most marketable fight. Everybody else has lost to him right I don’t care if Islam decides that he doesn’t want to fight me. I don’t care. I sit till you’re going to have to fight me.”

Beneficial or not, Topuria has to consider the pros and cons of waiting for his shot. A top-tier fighter like him would not want to rust his performance due to a long wait. As things stand now, Islam and his team are looking to go up in weight classes themselves with their eyes set on the UFC 315 main event.

How long can Islam Makhachev make Ilia Topuria wait before he accepts his challenge? It’s an aspect that the Dagestani can surely take advantage of, and even if Ilia is actually the one to beat him, he may just not show up the way we see him now. What do you think happens next in the career of Ilia Topuria? Can he reach the double-champ status soon? Let us know in the comments.