Fight fans may finally get their wish to see a superfight between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and former 155-pound king Islam Makhachev.
As of now, Makhachev is expected to fight UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena at some point later this year (likely at UFC 322 at Madison Square Garden in New York). After that, Makhachev is open to finally meeting the undefeated Topuria inside of the Octagon in a clash of pound-for-pound bests.
Before Makhachev officially moved up to welterweight
the two fighters were aligning for a massive superfight. Topuria had racked off back-to-back knockout wins over featherweight legends Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway and was looking to become a UFC double champion. Ultimately, Makhachev left his title behind in pursuit of welterweight gold and Topuria won the vacant lightweight belt with a knockout victory over Charles Oliveira.
During a recent interview (via Ushatayka), Makhachev breathed some life into a future matchup with Topuria. Of course, Makhachev will need to handle business against JDM his next time out, but after that he’s willing to discuss a potential clash with “El Matador.”
“There’s some intrigue with Topuria,“ said Makhachev when asked who is next after Della Maddalena. ”I’m also interested in that fight. Maybe we can make some kind of super fight. Or, as I said, we’ll see about the weight.“
This may be music to the ears of fight fans, but Makhachev might be putting the cart before the horse. That’s because JDM is more dangerous than people give him credit for, having just defeated Belal Muhammad for the UFC welterweight title to extend his unbeaten UFC record to 8-0. Makhachev could very well cough it up against Della Maddalena later this year and forever put an end to the super fight talks.
We shall see.