Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria is a dream fight that many fans yearn to see, but a former UFC titleholder doesn’t see the super fight being one that happens any time soon. Michael Bisping was discussing this on his YouTube channel in the wake of Makhachev becoming the welterweight champion at UFC 322, as Bisping said,
“Ilia Topura is going to come out and say that because he wants that fight. Could you imagine if Ilia Topuria was afforded the ability to go up and become a three-weight division champion? Again, I say it all the time, no one’s ever done that. I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen here just yet. I think Ilia’s going to defend.”
We don’t know who it’s going to be, could be Arman Tsarukyan because he’s fighting [Dan Hooker] next week in Qatar. It could be Paddy [Pimblett], it could be Justin Gaethje, but he’s going to fight one of those. He’s [Ilia’s] probably gonna defend a couple of more times as well before he even thinks about going up to welterweight.”
Islam Makhachev’s queue of contenders at 170 pounds, per Bisping
With the stacked cluster of contenders at 170 pounds, newly minted kingpin Islam Makhachev will also have a dearth of hungry, divisionally relevant contenders to first deal with before an Ilia Topuria cross-divisional bout, as Bisping continued,
“Then when you look at welterweight, I mean, what is going to happen there? Because the welterweight division is ridiculous right now. Of course, Michael Morales has a claim to fighting for the belt because he’s 19-0, he’s undefeated, and just knocked out Sean Brady. You’ve got Carlos Prates that just sparked out former champion Leon Edwards in devastating fashion. Did something that no one’s ever done to Leon Edwards. So he’s got a shot.”
You’ve also got Shavkat Rakhmonov that was the number one contender but then he got injured. You’ve got Belal Muhammad going up against Ian Garry. Ian Garry’s making a lot of noise saying that he wants to fight for the belt as well. Then of course afterall that, you’ve got Kamaru Usman, ‘the Nigerian Nightmare.’ So there is no shortage of opponents [in the welterweight division]. Oh and you’ve also got Joaquin Buckley.”
