Officially moving up from featherweight, Ilia Topuria has his sights set firmly on the UFC lightweight title and a potential clash with the reigning champ, Islam Makhachev. However, at this point, the Spaniard seems to have dug himself into a Catch-22 situation.
The champion Makhachev and his team have reportedly refused to entertain a match with Topuria before he fights at least once with a fellow lightweight contender. At this point, the closest man to the Makhachev’s title is former champion Charles Oliveira.
However, according to analyst Chael Sonnen, Oliveira isn’t about to give Topuria his time of the day unless he can knock on his gates with UFC gold on offer.
In an episode of the Good Guy/ Bad Guy Show on ESPN, Sonnen recounted Oliveira’s words and quoted the Brazilian.
“I will only fight Ilia Topuria if he wins the belt. If he comes up and proves he belongs here, if he’s the world champion, I will then fight him.”, he said.
But this might not be Oliveira’s choice to make. He lost his #1 title contender fight to Arman Tsarukyan last year. The only reason he has been positioned as a challenger is because bossman Dana White has asked Arman to get to the back of the line after the Armenian fighter pulled out of UFC 311 with less than 48 hours of notice.
As Sonnen put it, Oliveira’s demand sounds “ridiculous” because he has no real leverage.
Chael Sonnen Reveals Why Charles Oliveira Refused to Fight Ilia Topuria
“I will only fight Ilia Topuria if he wins the belt. If he moves up and proves he belongs here—if he’s the world champion—then I’ll fight him. This is my weight class, I hold a higher ranking, and I’ve… pic.twitter.com/v3HViXER66
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) March 17, 2025
“In this position I can, this is my weight class, I hold a higher ranking, I’ve been a champion here before, this guy is all talk,” Oliveira reportedly said, trying to make his case. But Sonnen wasn’t buying it.
But as interesting as this new development is, it is in contradiction to something Oliveira had said earlier this week.
‘Do Bronx’ will fight whoever the UFC assigns
Speaking to Oddspedia, the former champion had asserted that while he believed himself to be next in line, he had all the respect in the world for Topuria.
Oliveira admitted that since Islam won’t be fighting for a while, so he would have ideally liked to have faced Max Holloway for the BMF title.
Interestingly, he also claimed that Holloway will face Dustin Poirier for the Louisiana native’s retirement fight – something the UFC is yet to announce.
And as far as the Topuria fight was concerned, the Brazilian star believes he can knock him out anytime he wants.
“I’ll fight whoever they tell me to fight. I have nothing but respect for Ilia Topuria, but that’s at lightweight. It’s the toughest division you’ll ever see and I have power in my hands. I believe in my Jiu-Jitsu, but I believe I can knock out Ilia Topuria.”, he said.
In the meantime, Topuria now awaits the UFC to perhaps force someone’s hand, having already played all his cards.
