Ahead of UFC 314, where Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes fight for a vacated featherweight championship, MMA scribe Ariel Helwani fears they might be chasing an interim title.
Helwani asserts that the UFC’s indecision over former champion Ilia Topuria’s next fight is what is causing so much uncertainty with just days remaining for the Miami PPV.
“I feel like the UFC needs to clarify the Ilia Topuria situation by Saturday. This title fight happening (Volkanovski vs Lopes at UFC 314), without any sort of resolution to what his next step is, is weird to me“, Helwani said.
Helwani’s contention remains with the fact that Topuria has been left in limbo after his spirited decision to make a permanent move to lightweight.
For weeks now, Topuria has maintained wanting to take on Islam Makhachev for the 155 lbs title, in contrast to the news from the Dagestani camp. Islam’s team, with suspected intervention from former champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, has put a pin on Topuria’s two division champion ambitions.
The reason? Two of Islam’s four title defenses have been against featherweight champion Volkanovski, and as such, he doesn’t intend to make a habit of defeating featherweights.
So, did the UFC not confer with Islam before asking Topuria to vacate the title? Especially since the champion has maintained not being in favor of the matchup? Or did they expect to sway him into the fold eventually?
Either way, this lack of clarity seems to have caused a lot of confusion at 145 lbs, especially with a championship fight on the horizon.
“If they come out on Friday and be like, ”Its Ilia vs Islam’- Okay, Now I understand why they vacated the title. It makes sense. If we get nothing, I feel like, this will feel like an interim title for some reason“, added Helwani, elaborating on the subject.
There is only thing that bothers me about UFC 314, and it’s not the fault of the card:
The UFC needs to clarify the Ilia Topuria situation by Saturday. This title fight happening without any sort of resolution as to what his next step is… It’s weird to me. pic.twitter.com/mLwuMWDNQc
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 7, 2025
In the meantime, what should Topuria do? Should he wait for Islam to figure out what the future holds for him? According to reports, Islam wants to wait out the result of Belal Muhammad vs Jack Della Madallena at UFC 311. Should Madallena win the welterweight title, there is a fair chance that Islam moves up to 170 lbs.
While that would seemingly open up a title opportunity at 155 lbs, with multiple contenders like Justin Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan, and Oliveira already reaching for it, Topuria might still find himself a few miles short.
So, in that case, does he continue a feud with Oliveira and take him on for the #1 contender?
Topuria vs. Oliveira
“You really think Ilia gave up the title to fight Charles (Oliveira)?” Helwani rhetorically asked his panelists while claiming the possibility that the UFC were “pulling a fast one on him!”
With no credible star or champion to main-event a PPV in Miami, Helwani addressed what could very well be the elephant in the room.
“Unless they are saying, ‘Yeah yeah, give us the belt so we can have this title fight main event because we didn’t have any other title fight to main event Miami, which is a huge market and we will deal with that later‘”, he suggested.
In the meantime, Oliveira himself has refused to fight Topuria, claiming that he had done enough himself to be granted a title shot, and unless the Spaniard had UFC gold that he could put on the line, the Brazilian wasn’t going to bite.
