{"id":316162,"date":"2026-04-10T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=316162"},"modified":"2026-04-10T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:54:08","slug":"ilia-topurias-manager-attempts-to-place-speculation-to-bed-regarding-failed-islam-makhachev-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/ilia-topurias-manager-attempts-to-place-speculation-to-bed-regarding-failed-islam-makhachev-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria\u2019s manager attempts to place speculation to bed regarding failed Islam Makhachev fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev proceed to have different stories as to why they aren\u2019t fighting one another next.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At one point, it seemed as if we were finally going to get Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev on the UFC White House event after negotiations took place.<\/p>\n

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Despite that, \u2018El Matador\u2019 claimed that an ongoing hand injury to the Russian prevented them from fighting, which was disputed by Makhachev.<\/p>\n

The welterweight champion claimed that Topuria and his team were demanding an excessive amount of money which resulted within the stumbling block.<\/p>\n

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Does a fight between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria have to occur? \ud83d\udc40<\/h3>\n

Tell us within the comments how you’d see this super-fight playing out\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Islam<\/div>
Islam Makhachev celebrates his win at UFC 311, Ilia Topuria on stage on the UFC 317 ceremonial weigh-ins. Credit: Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Topuria\u2019s manager attempts to place speculation to bed<\/h2>\n

The saga regarding the negotiations between Topuria and Makhachev have been occurring for several months now.<\/p>\n

Dana White disputed Makhachev\u2019s claim earlier this week that \u2018El Matador\u2019 priced himself out of the fight claiming that\u2019s \u2018not true\u2019.<\/p>\n

And now, Topuria\u2019s manager Malki Kawa has taken to social media to make clear what happened, attempting to place all speculation to bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually need to make clear this Ilia Topuria Islam thing because people really take things way out of context and way out of proportion,\u201d Kawa began his statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Monday before I called and said \u2018Are you guys gonna use Ilia Topuria for this card?\u2019, the reply was no. The Wednesday comes around and I get a call that claims \u2018hey, he can fight, its his alternative, Justin Gaethje or Islam Makhachev\u2019 and I immediately said, \u2018s\u2014 we wish Islam\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said \u2018we\u2019ll offer you X number to fight\u2019 and I said, \u2018bro, you already know that never will occur\u2019, they said here\u2019s the number and you may have a alternative, I said we wish Islam, that\u2019s exactly what I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIlia Topuria wants Islam Makhachev, that\u2019s who he desired to fight, he said \u2018call me back let me know if that\u2019ll work\u2019. Friday comes, they didn\u2019t speak to me, I didn\u2019t speak to them, I am going to bed, and at 11:59 on the dot I\u2019m getting phone calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makhachev hasn\u2019t fought since last November when he won the 170lb title and since then he has allegedly been coping with a hand injury.<\/p>\n

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\"Islam<\/div>
Photo by Ishika Samant\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite that, Ian Machado Garry has been waiting for a possible fight against him however the Russian continues to cite hand injuries as to why he can\u2019t fight the Irishman, despite him claiming that he could fight Topuria in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Hunter and said \u2018what\u2019s up\u2019, he said, \u2018we wish Ilia to fight\u2019 and I said \u2018okay, Islam?\u2019, he replied \u2018Islam can\u2019t fight his hand is tousled\u2019 that moment on Friday night I\u2019m on the phone to the UFC brass negotiating all night,\u201d Kawa continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat negotiation was for Justin Gaethje, Islam Makhachev was never actually an option. Who\u2019s ducking who? Everyone agrees Ilia vs Islam is perhaps the largest fight in UFC history don\u2019t you guys think they need to have the largest payday in UFC history? I\u2019d be a rattling idiot to take that fight for lower than the suitable number.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like I asked for $100 million and even $50 million, I asked for a number that I feel is super reasonable\u2026 After (the UFC White House fight) what\u2019s gonna occur is we\u2019re gonna have that conversation again, and it\u2019ll be as much as the UFC again\u2026 However the number needs to be right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Follow us on Google Discover Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev proceed to have different stories as to why they aren\u2019t fighting one another next. At one point, it seemed as if we were finally going to get Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev on the UFC White House event after negotiations took place. Despite that, \u2018El […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[15426,2479,3551,1253,9713,1794,13132,550,4434,9714,19507],"class_list":["post-316162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-attempts","tag-bed","tag-failed","tag-fight","tag-ilia","tag-islam","tag-makhachev","tag-manager","tag-put","tag-speculation","tag-topurias"],"aioseo_notices":[{"message":"The permalink for this post just changed! This could result in 404 errors for your site visitors.","status":"warning","options":{"id":"0a2ae5f84bc2c0423042ed7ec22d2e40","isDismissible":true,"actions":[{"url":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/wp-admin\/admin.php?page=aioseo-redirects","label":"Add Redirect to improve SEO","class":"aioseo-redirects-slug-changed"}]},"allowedContexts":["posts"]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316165,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316162\/revisions\/316165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}