UFC has finally unveiled its Freedom 250 card, featuring two of its biggest superstars, Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira, competing on the same night. With titles and legacies on the line, their bouts already carry massive stakes and are expected to headline one of the biggest events of the year. However, Daniel Cormier believes the promotion still missed an opportunity by not booking what he considers the biggest fight possible.

The former two-division champion believes the Islam Makhachev vs Ilia Topuria superfight is the best fight currently in the UFC. Why? Well, Cormier didn’t provide a deep insight, but both fighters being elite in the promotion was enough of a reason for him.

“I think that’s the best fight,” Cormier told @princestpizza, “I think Islam vs. Topuria might be the biggest and the best fight the UFC can put on in any weight class, just because they are both so elite. I don’t know that we have two better fighters in the UFC than these two. And I think these two need to fight,” he added.

Honestly, fans expected to witness the matchup between Makhachev and Topuria since the last International Fight Week. Last year, both came really close to colliding when the Georgian-Spaniard moved to lightweight. But after the Dagestani ascended to welterweight, the fight fizzled out. A year later, the possibility arose once again with the UFC’s ambitious White House event, and yet again, Dana White and Co failed to make the superfight due to failed negotiations.

Following the UFC’s grand reveal of the Freedom 250 fights, ‘El Matador’ stirred the pot on social media, claiming that Makhachev dodged a fight against him. As expected, the reigning 170 lbs champ fired back at the lightweight kingpin, countering the “ducking” claims. However, amid the verbal back-and-forth online, fans remained puzzled for a while, questioning whether their fight was actually under negotiation for the White House event. Topuria’s manager eventually cleared the air.

In a recent interview with Anik and Florian, ‘El Matador’s manager, Malki Kawa, revealed that the UFC actually pitched them a fight against Islam Makhachev, but they ended up rejecting the offer because the money was too little. Instead, they accepted the unification bout with Justin Gaethje at UFC White House. Hence, once again, the UFC failed to make one of the biggest fights of the current era.

This is not the first time the UFC has failed to book a superfight between two champions from different divisions. During the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, the company teased a match between Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, but it never materialized. While GSP teased a move to the welterweight division, by the time he made the move and won the title against Michael Bisping, Silva was past his prime.

Now, as Makhachev vs Topuria has fallen through, there’s still a chance it could happen in the future. And if the fight does end up materializing down the line, a popular American fighter believes the Georgian-Spaniard would have a real chance to become a three-division champion.

Colby Covington believes Ilia Topuria can beat Islam Makhachev in UFC

To be fair, Makhachev vs Topuria would be one of the trickiest fights to land a prediction on. Each legendary fighter poses significant threats on very different grounds, and it would be hard to guess where one would reap the benefits of their advantages. However, popular American UFC star Colby Covington believes Topuria would be hard to take down, and hence he’d come out on top.

“I think Topuria matches up exceptional against Makhachev,” ‘Chaos’ told MMA Junkie in an interview. “He’s a big, strong guy, he’s a low center of gravity so he’s going to be very hard to take down and hold down. Of course, we know how explosive his striking is. So hopefully they can make that fight before their careers end.”

Covington definitely makes a good analysis here. If we look at Islam Makhachev’s UFC 284 fight against Alexander Volkanovski, we can figure out that although the Dagestani icon effectively used his takedowns, the Aussie fought his way back to his feet while evading the submission attempts. While doing so, ‘The Great’ was surely using his years of experience in grappling, but he also ended up landing big shots inside the pocket using his explosive striking.

Now, where is Ilia Topuria actually at his strongest? Inside the pocket, of course. So ‘El Matador’ can definitely deal damage if he also finds a way to stuff or escape Makhachev’s takedowns. That said, as the entire MMA world longs to see this fight, would the UFC care to make it? Let us know in the comments section below.