Ilia Topuria won’t be fighting in the first half of 2026, but based on recent interviews he’s still going to be doing a lot of talking.
Topuria announced last month that he was taking a step back from defending
his lightweight title to deal with a nasty divorce that currently has accusations of extortion and domestic abuse swirling around it. Topuria has asked that the world respect his privacy in this time and thus far, a lot of lightweight contenders are doing that.
But the dam may not hold if he continues to go out and give interviews talking mad s–t about said contenders. In a sit down recorded last week as part of his WOW MMA promotion, Topuria blasted welterweight champ Islam Makhachev.
“Everyone knows this is the fight people want, but for some reason he hasn’t accepted it,” Topuria said to ElDobermanMMA of Makhachev. “He talks too much. It’s very easy to talk from thousands of kilometers away, to judge and criticize me. When you’re in the octagon with me, you’ll realize I’m not Jack Della Maddalena or Dan Hooker. When my right hand lands, you’re going to have a very long sleep.”
“They’re so cocky and arrogant, I would really love to submit [Islam] in front of [Khabib],” Topuria concluded. “And if Khabib wants to step in afterward, I’ll gladly step on his head too.”
That roused the attention of Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, who fired back suggesting any truce regarding Ilia’s personal matters would not hold if he kept being disrespectful.
“I’m a little bit confused,” Abdelaziz tweeted. “Everybody giving this guy space and respect to resolve his family problems. And should be. But when he come out talking about Khabib, Islam, Arman, for no reason. And he’s not even fighting. I’m not sure if people should give him a pass anymore.”
Considering Abdelaziz runs many of his clients’ X (formerly Twitter) accounts, we could see a sudden increase in cheap shots towards Topuria. We don’t know how well that would work out for anyone. Ali infamously trash talked Magomed “Big Ank” Ankalaev’s reputation into the toilet during the Russian’s feud with Alex Pereira. He’s not exactly good at reading the temperature of any given situation and we expect Bryce Mitchell-level nukes to start flying at any point.
In the end, the Dominance MMA head just wants Topuria to shut up about his fighters, especially if Topuria wants everyone to shut their mouths about his divorce. But Topuria never said anything about being nice to everyone, he just said family should be left out of it — a simple enough distinction. Let’s see if Abdelaziz gets it.
