Henry Cejudo believes Ilia Topuria should get Islam Makhachev title fight

Henry Cejudo believes Ilia Topuria should receive a UFC lightweight title shot against Islam Makhachev in his first fight at 155 pounds.

As we know, Ilia Topuria is set to make the move up to the lightweight division. In doing so, he will be vacating his featherweight championship.

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Ever since that announcement was made, many have wondered: who will Ilia Topuria fight first at 155 pounds? There are plenty of great names that it could be, but the main one is Islam Makhachev. We’ve seen plenty of champion vs champion fights in the past, and given Ilia’s incredible star power, it makes sense that the promotion may immediately want to vault him into that position.

In the eyes of Henry Cejudo, putting Topuria against Makhachev would be a great idea – and would lead to a very competitive fight.

Should @Topuriailia dive straight into a title fight against @MAKHACHEVMMA ? 🤔 #UFC pic.twitter.com/PhacDbUUHq

— Pound 4 Pound (@pound4poundshow) February 27, 2025

Cejudo backs Topuria

“I think he should fight Islam Makhachev. I think when you knock out two guys like that, two first ballot Hall of Famers, 100%, he does deserve it. They had mentioned Arman Tsarukyan, they denied it, because Arman is nitty gritty, man.

“They wanna take the chances of fighting Islam Makhachev and trying to defeat him. I’ll tell you what man, if Islam cannot take him down, or if he doesn’t take him down early dude, that could be very problematic for a guy like Islam Makhachev. Ilia Topuria, he level changes his striking. He goes high, he goes low.

“Islam Makhachev has that quote at the UFC PI – anybody, anytime, anywhere. It’s just up to the UFC to say, alright man, this is the date.”

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