{"id":5746,"date":"2025-04-18T13:26:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=5746"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:03:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T15:03:46","slug":"ilia-topuria-issues-a-direct-challenge-to-islam-makhachev-you-cant-avoid-me-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/ilia-topuria-issues-a-direct-challenge-to-islam-makhachev-you-cant-avoid-me-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria Issues a Direct Challenge to Islam Makhachev: &#8220;You Can&#8217;t Avoid Me Forever&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2256\" data-end=\"2559\">Georgian-Spanish MMA star Ilia Topuria continues to shake the fight world with bold statements and unwavering determination to face lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Although no opponent has been officially set for him yet, Topuria\u2019s target is clear: dethrone the division&#8217;s king and claim the belt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2561\" data-end=\"2843\">Back in March, Topuria vacated his undisputed featherweight title to move up a weight class. According to him, the UFC promised he\u2019d receive a title shot immediately upon moving to lightweight. However, Makhachev and his team appear reluctant to accept the matchup\u2014at least for now.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Khabib knows I\u2019m the one to take  the belt from Islam. Only reason he doesn\u2019t want Islam to fight me<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Topuriailia\/status\/1912325008304599131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2845\" data-end=\"2888\"><strong data-start=\"2845\" data-end=\"2888\">Topuria\u2019s Message: Patience as a Weapon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2890\" data-end=\"2993\">Speaking on <em data-start=\"2902\" data-end=\"2928\">The Joe Rogan Experience<\/em> podcast, Topuria sent a blunt message to the Dagestani champion:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"2995\" data-end=\"3373\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2997\" data-end=\"3373\">&#8220;I want to fight Islam, for sure. I\u2019m not taking a number-one contender fight. If Islam decides not to fight me, I\u2019ll just wait. You can\u2019t call yourself world champion and continue to dominate the division while avoiding me. I gave up my belt because I said I wouldn&#8217;t fight below 66 kg anymore, and I was promised a title shot in my next fight. How long can you keep me out?&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3375\" data-end=\"3400\"><strong data-start=\"3375\" data-end=\"3400\">Unshakable Confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3402\" data-end=\"3638\">Despite the current standoff, Topuria remains confident that Makhachev will be his next opponent. Known as \u201cEl Matador,\u201d he exudes belief in his ability to defeat even the most dominant fighters, including Khabib Nurmagomedov\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_78380\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5RmF0ryPA-k?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3640\" data-end=\"3690\"><strong data-start=\"3640\" data-end=\"3690\">Conclusion: A Delayed but Inevitable Showdown?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3692\" data-end=\"3994\">In a world full of anticipation and speculation, a potential fight between Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated clashes in the UFC. It\u2019s a battle between the hunger of a rising star and the legacy of a reigning champion. The question is not <em data-start=\"3977\" data-end=\"3981\">if<\/em>, but <em data-start=\"3987\" data-end=\"3993\">when<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgian-Spanish MMA star Ilia Topuria continues to shake the fight world with bold statements and unwavering determination to face lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Although no opponent has been officially set for him yet, Topuria\u2019s target is clear: dethrone the division&#8217;s king and claim the belt. Back in March, Topuria vacated his undisputed featherweight title to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86,21,91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-mma-video","9":"category-ufc-news","10":"category-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5748,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions\/5748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}