UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria is confident he would knock out lightweight champion Islam Makhachev because he believes a higher power has already determined it.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) is coming off an incredible 2024 campaign. He knocked out two greats of his division, Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, earning MMA Junkie’s 2024 Male Fighter of the Year award. Now, his sights are set on potential challenges at lightweight, including a superfight against the champ.
“I really believe that I can beat the current champion, Islam,” Topuria said on the “Full Send Podcast.” “I really think that. He’s a great champion. You can’t be a world champion by chance; you have to do things great. He’s a beast. I don’t like to be a bully and fight with people that I know 100 percent that I’m going to whoop his ass, you know?
“I like to fight with people that the fans think that it’s going to be very competitive. That kind of expectation I like to create. With Islam, I’m going to have that. Doing again the rematch with people that I already fought, I don’t think that I’m going to have the same kind of expectations, you know, for the fans.”
The next fight for Topuria is yet to be announced. Rumors have swirled that Volkanovski could land a title rematch. While Topuria would rather take on a new challenge, he is quick to admit that he would have to fully lock in for a potential rematch, because things could go very differently than the first meeting.
“In the rematch, I’m sure I’m going to knock him out once again if we fight again, or I will submit him – I will do the same things,” Topuria said. “But at the same time, you can’t joke with that guy. He’s a f*cking legend. The only thing he knows to do is fighting, so I can’t underestimate him at all because he’s a f*cking beast. With Max Holloway, I just knock him out. But maybe we fight again, and you never know what’s gonna happen.”
Topuria, 28, believes the UFC would welcome a champion vs. champion fight, if all the pieces fall into place. On paper, Makhachev would posses an advantage in the wrestling department, but Topuria is confident in his ability to land a fight-finishing punch, as he has done in five of his eight UFC victories.
“I have so many things against Islam that he’s gonna have some hard time with me, and something he knows and we all know is that the only thing I need, it’s one punch,” Topuria said. “You know for sure that I’m going to connect that one punch because I don’t throw my punches like crazy. I’m waiting for my moment and I apply a lot of technique behind that punch. I move my head and I know where to throw the punches.
“We all know at some point, I will connect that punch, and everything will depend on what God will decide. If he wants to send Islam to sleep or not, who knows that? I know that.”
While that one punch may be one path to victory for Topuria, he doesn’t see it as his only option. In fact, “El Matador” believes he would thrive in Makhachev’s world as well, and would be able to find another way to keep the judges out of the fight.
“I can also submit him,” Topuria said. “To be honest, I always say that I represent the new generation of mixed martial arts, and what that means, before you were saying guys were good in MMA, they were good in striking and maybe in wrestling, but their ground game wasn’t that good. Or you see a guy who has a phenomenal ground game, he has phenomenal striking, but his wrestling sucks.
“In my case, I’m good everywhere. So, you can take me everywhere and I’m gonna feel comfortable. They used to say, ‘I’m gonna take you to the deep water.’ I was born in the deep water. Take me wherever you want to take me.”
