Ilia Topuria really was done at featherweight.
That’s what UFC CEO Dana White says led to Topuria vacating his title and declaring plans to move up to the lightweight division with no guarantees about what comes next for him.
“No, he did that,” White revealed about Topuria’s decision to relinquish his belt before changing weight classes. “He said, ‘I’ve done everything I can do here, I’m ready to move up’ and he vacated it. He said, ‘I shouldn’t be holding up anybody’s opportunities.’ I respect when guys do that.
“I think he felt he had done everything with the guys that he beat. If you look at who he beat and how he beat them, right? And I don’t think he loved making that weight anymore.”
Topuria leaving the featherweight title behind led to a new championship bout being booked for UFC 314 where Alexander Volkanovski faces Diego Lopes in the main event.
While the 145-pound division moves forward, Topuria still awaits his next assignment. As it turns out, there’s no guarantee a shot against UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is next. As much as Topuria has been calling for that opportunity, no decisions have been made just yet or the promotion would have already announced the fight.
“There’s still other possibilities,” White said about Topuria’s next fight. “A lot of shit going on right now, otherwise I would have said [what his fight was going to be].”
Following the announcement that Topuria was vacating his belt to move up to lightweight, Lopes did an interview where he claimed the UFC was changing its policy to stop champions from holding onto a title when changing divisions.
White rebutted that idea while explaining the pros and cons about champions chasing titles across multiple weight classes.
“Unless you think you can defend your title,” White said. “Listen, if there’s a guy that thinks he can do it and wants to defend both belts and has accomplished all these great things, I would have no problem with it. You’re going to be busy.”
In past instances, White hasn’t always seemed enthusiastic about champions changing weight classes to pursue a second title, which became all the rage after Conor McGregor achieved that status by conquering the lightweight and featherweight divisions simultaneously.
White isn’t totally opposed to champions chasing greatness, but prefers to see somebody totally wipe out an entire division before taking on that new challenge. While Topuria technically only has one title defense on his résumé, his past two wins have come against arguably two of the greatest featherweights in history with knockout wins over Volkanovski and Max Holloway, so it’s a little harder to make the argument against him.
“Unless you’ve really wiped out a division, like Jon Jones who was in [light heavyweight] forever and moved up to heavyweight,” White said. “Ilia, I get it. It makes sense.
“Like I said, who he’s beat and how he beat them and now he’s tired of making weight and wants to move up to [155 pounds], totally makes sense. [Zhang Weili], she’s accomplished just about everything you can accomplish in her weight division. I don’t have a problem with it. The philosophy hasn’t changed, just on a case-by-case basis.”
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