Alas, the Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria super-fight is not happening. But we have the chance at an even bigger fight. No, we’re not talking about Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 for the lightweight title. An even bigger superstar has called out ‘El Matador’ and wants to defend Dagestan’s honor against the former featherweight champ.

“Hey [Ilia Topuria] if you really want that belt, then I’m ready. [Dana White] send the contract, I will bring the LW belt back to Dagestan,” Hasbulla wrote on X, along with a picture of him holding the belt.

Hasbulla, of course, is currently signed to the UFC, having signed a five-year deal with Dana White and co in 2022 to help them promote their events. But no commission is likely to clear the beloved Dagestani viral MMA media personality fighting Topuria, who one of the most dangerous men in the world, and already has his next opponent.

But why would the usually respectful Hasbulla call out Topuria, seemingly out of nowhere? Well, it may have something to do with ‘El Matador’s recent comments about Hasbulla’s friend and compatriot Islam Makhachev amid the ongoing drama between the two UFC superstars.

After all, Topuria vacated his featherweight tile and moved up to lightweight, hell-bent on fighting for the title held by Islam Makhachev. But the Dagestani refused, wanting ‘El Matador’ to prove himself by fitting another top lightweight. In the end, both men got what they wanted– Makhachev is moving up to welterweight to fight for a second title, and Topuria is fighting for the title on June 28 at UFC 317. And with both men having their next opponents, it seemed the animosity between them would go down a notch. But that wasn’t to be.

Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev trash each other publicly

“He is the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen. He said he didn’t want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy, now he is the little guy looking for the same opportunity that I was looking for, a hypocrite,” Topuria said in a recent press conference.

And as you can imagine, Islam Makhachev was livid at these charges. The lightweight champ immediately took to X and made some rather unflattering comments about the Spanish-Georgian superstar.

“Difference between me and you, that I cleaned top list in my division, moved to next, but you ran away from two contenders who had consecutive 5-9 wins in FW division. You are nobody in LW division, just a big mouth from Spain with nice haircut. Go get one W, and we can talk boy,” Makhachev wrote.

Topuria did have two surging young contenders at featherweight he could have fought– Movsar Evloev and Diego Lopes. But that isn’t why ‘El Matador’ left the division, according to Topuria and his team. It seems that the former champ just didn’t have it in him to cut to 145 pounds anymore and chose to move up.

But he is still an unknown commodity at lightweight. Size makes a lot of difference in any fight, so Makhachev wanting to make sure ‘El Matador’ was worthy of fighting for the title by defeating another top contender also makes sense. What do you think about Hasbulla calling out Ilia Topuria?