Ilia Topuria has said he’ll return to the cage soon, and now UFC CEO Dana White is confirming it.
Topuria has been out of action since receiving an ass whupping at the hands of Justin Gaethje back in June. The seemingly unstoppable “El Matador” was forced to quit after the fourth round of his White House bout after “The Highlight” broke orbital bones in both Topuria’s eyes.
Five months later, and Topuria has moved from Miami back to his home country of Georgia to prepare for his comeback fight, one
that White says will come at the beginning of 2027.
“He’ll come back in early 2027,” White told Jim Rome. “We’re working on that, too. That entire lightweight division, you’ve got [Justin] Gaethje, [Ilia] Topuria, Arman Tsarukyan, [Charles] Oliveira, Paddy Pimblett, [Max] Holloway. The whole top 10 is straight killers and the most badass division we have right now.”
White refused to hint at who Topuria could face in his return.
“I’m not gonna give you a name,” he said. “Then all of these Instagram frigging things out there say, ‘Oh, he said he’s fighting him.’ It drives me mental.”
There’s a good chance the UFC doesn’t know the answer to this question yet either, but they have a number of good options. A rematch against Justin Gaethje would be big. A fight against Paddy Pimblett would be even bigger. And who wouldn’t want to see Topuria face Arman Tsarukyan, or give Alexander Volkanovski a chance at redemption?
Whoever ends up across the ring from Topuria will be given better odds of defeating “El Matador” now that Gaethje has proven Ilia is human. Can he bounce back from such a bad loss and so much damage to regain the aura he had before UFC White House? It’ll be one of the most intriguing stories of early 2027.
