Ilia Topuria hoisting two belts after knocking out Charles Oliveira in the first round at UFC 317 cemented his place in UFC history. That win got even sweeter when ‘El Matador’ claimed the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot, ending Islam Makhachev’s 602-day reign. But fans still want to see the two biggest superstars collide in the cage to find out who the real king is. That dream matchup, however, hit a snag after the Dagestani moved up to welterweight to fight Jack Della Maddalena. However, Dana White decided to get our hopes up once again!

The current lightweight champion was never shy about the idea of moving up to the 170 lbs weight class to face Islam Makhachev in a superfight. At one point, the idea was met with a lot of skepticism. Even Topuria himself doubted the possibility. But UFC head honcho, clearly impressed with the Georgian-Spaniard’s performance during International Fight Week, made things clearer on the Full Send podcast: “Obviously if Islam wins the title, you immediately have a superfight between him and Ilia.”

Since then, the tug-of-war between Makhachev and Ilia Topuria’s fan bases has reignited. And it’s not a stretch to say both sides might be the most passionate in the game right now. While Topuria continues his rise to superstardom, Islam Makhachev has his own circle of high-profile supporters. Even Dana White’s good friends, the Nelk Boys, have openly called the Dagestani their favorite fighter to watch. They even traveled to Dagestan ahead of Islam’s UFC 284 title fight. Naturally, Topuria wasn’t too thrilled about them backing his potential opponent.

MMA Orbit uploaded a clip from a Nelk Boys livestream featuring Ilia Topuria, captioned, “Ilia Topuria beat up the Nelk Boys after they told him their favorite fighter was Islam Makhachev.” And honestly, the caption pretty much matched the chaos in the video, as the Georgian-Spaniard unleashed those vicious hands and knocked out a few of the Nelk Boys crew on the spot.

“His favorite fighter is Islam, too,” Kyle Forgeard can be heard saying in the clip about one of them. After this, the 28-year-old simply goes on to decimate them one by one. It looked like Topuria was having fun with the famous internet personalities. But who knows? Maybe he saw a bit of Makhachev in them and got a little carried away with that right hand! With a staggering opportunity ahead to become the first fighter ever to hold three belts at once. Maybe he’s already getting in some early practice. Then again, the lightweight division has plenty of worthy contenders to keep him busy for a while.

‘El Matador’ might find himself facing Arman Tsarukyan, Paddy Pimblett, or even Justin Gaethje in his next fight. And with that in mind, the lightweight champ had a short but pointed message for one of them. So, let’s take a look at what he had to say! 

Ilia Topuria takes a shot at Arman Tsarukyan, calling him a “weird dude”

Tsarukyan has been calling out Ilia Topuria ever since he captured the lightweight title. ‘Akhalkalakets’ even revealed his game plan to beat the current 155 lbs kingpin during an appearance on Daniel Cormier’s podcast. Adding more fuel to their brewing rivalry. But ‘El Matador’ seems even more indifferent about the idea of facing Tsarukyan in a potential grudge match

Continuing the livestream with Nelk Boys, Topuria said, “First of all, who gives a f–k about him? He’s kind of weird, dude. [He pulled out] for no reason. If you really have a serious reason, I don’t know how could it happen, but break your hand, your leg, something like that, I don’t know.” 

Classic Topuria! Always throwing shade at his opponents’ past mistakes. This time, ‘El Matador’ took another jab at Arman Tsarukyan’s last-minute UFC 311 pullout before he was set to fight Islam Makhachev for the title. The current champ didn’t hold back, claiming Tsarukyan is “irrelevant” at this point. Still, if Arman scores a solid win, especially over someone like Paddy Pimblett, he could be right back in the title mix.

With that being said, which fight do you find the most interesting? Is it the Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev superfight that almost happened this year? Or would you rather see a heated grudge match between Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!