The present UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria is planning an epic return on the upcoming event on the White House.
Earlier this yr after shockingly vacating his featherweight title, Ilia Topuria went on to proceed showing his greatness by knocking out Charles Oliveira to grow to be the brand new lightweight champion.
Immediately after his win over the Brazilian, Topuria faced off with popular contender Paddy Pimblett, potentially teasing at his first lightweight title defense.
And more recently, things were pointing towards ‘El Matador’ defending his title against ‘The Baddy’ on the UFC’s first numbered event of their recent cope with Paramount next yr.
Topuria targeting White House fight as an alternative of January return
Earlier this week, UFC boss Dana White hinted that the Spaniard would potentially headline the primary numbered event of 2026, marking the start of a brand new era for the promotion.
Despite that, the 28-year-old has declared that he’s as an alternative targeting an appearance on the UFC’s upcoming event on the White House, which is scheduled to happen on June 14.
“I need to fight Islam Makhachev on the White House. It will be certainly one of the most important fights in UFC history. Nobody has fought for a 3rd title,” Topuria recently claimed during a press conference in Georgia.
“Islam finished his old division with complete dominance and altered weight classes, so I believe it should be an enormous, magnetic fight,” he continued.
The UFC were widely criticized for dropping the ball and never making Topuria vs Islam Makhachev when the Russian was the lightweight champion.
Ever since, ‘El Matador’ has continued to say that he wants to maneuver as much as 170lbs to take him on in a history-making fight, if Makhachev beats Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322.
With the UFC White House event scheduled to be the most important UFC event of all time, the promotion will undoubtedly look to placed on a marquee predominant event, and Makhachev vs Topuria is the most important fight they may possibly make.
Could Topuria still fight in January before White House event?
Although ‘El Matador’ has made it clear he’s targeting a return on the White House event, that isn’t to say that he couldn’t also compete in January.
If he was to defend his 155lb title in January, the 2 likely contenders are currently the aforementioned Pimblett, and longtime contender Justin Gaethje.
Despite that, Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz recently dropped a touch on social media that ‘The Highlight’ is probably not getting the following title shot, claiming that ‘everyone knows it is a business’.