Ilia Topuria reveals he’s willing to move to UFC’s welterweight division

UFC star Ilia Topuria has revealed that he’d be willing to move to the welterweight division at some point in the future.

Right now, Ilia Topuria is the next big thing in mixed martial arts. He is being promoted in that way and he’s carrying himself like an absolute superstar. After winning the UFC featherweight title, he was able to successfully defend it against Max Holloway. Now, we’re at a point where he is moving up to the lightweight division in order to try and become a two-division world champion.

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That venture will bring Topuria face to face with Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 317 next weekend. Nobody knows for sure how it’s going to go, but it’s safe to say that the majority of fans and pundits are backing ‘El Matador’ to pick up the victory in fairly devastating fashion, as he’s done so many times before.

In a recent interview, though, Topuria made it crystal clear that he’s still willing to follow Islam Makhachev all the way up to welterweight.

Topuria looks ahead to the future

“To be honest, I wanted to face (Makhachev) because he was the guy who was dominating anyone and everyone (at lightweight),” Topuria said Friday at a media scrum ahead of an open workout in Las Vegas. “But at the end of the day, I can’t control what they do. The only thing I can control is what I do. So I wanted to move up, I wanted to fight for the title of this division. That’s what I’m doing. He decided to move up also. I can’t do anything else but go and fight whoever wants to fight me.”

“We’ll see how he does in the welterweight division, if he wins the title and I win the title in the lightweight division. Maybe I move up or he comes down to the lightweight division and we have the fight that everyone wants to see,” Topuria said.

“… If Islam becomes the world welterweight champion, for sure I’m going to push for that shot and I will move to the welterweight division.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie