Islam Makhachev’s manager pitches title eliminator for Ilia Topuria

Islam Makhachev’s supervisor want to see Ilia Topuria earn his title shot at light-weight.

Topuria vacated his UFC featherweight title for a transfer as much as 155 kilos. Light-weight champion Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) beforehand stated he’s not excited about combating one other 145-pounder in Topuria, and his supervisor agrees.

Rizvan Magomedov suggests Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) face one in every of two top-ranked UFC lightweights to turn into No. 1 contender.

“Topuria vs Dustin/Charles contender struggle, to show he’s legit light-weight. So we don’t should defeat one other ‘small featherweight.’ We’d like huge struggle that make sense for everybody. We already gave probabilities to featherweight champ that was reigning for very long time.”

Two of Makhachev’s record-breaking 4 UFC light-weight title defenses got here towards ex-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski. He was scheduled to rematch Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311 final month, however wound up going through Renato Moicano as a substitute when Tsarukyan withdrew resulting from a again harm the day earlier than. Makhachev made fast work of Moicano, however UFC CEO Dana White stated Tsarukyan won’t get his title-fight rebooked subsequent.

Topuria made his light-weight debut in March 2022 when he knocked out Jai Herbert, however opted to return to 145 kilos in his subsequent struggle. He climbed his strategy to title rivalry, and is coming off back-to-back knockouts of former champs Alexander Volkanovski, and most just lately Max Holloway at UFC 308.