Ilia Topuria is on the verge of realizing his double championship dreams this weekend. But he has to go through a former champion and a veteran of the sport, Charles Oliveira. But guess what? The odds are in favor of ‘El Matador’, with a lot of people in the fight community expressing their doubts about ‘Do Bronxs’s chances. However, Team Khabib’s head coach, Javier Mendez, does not see the sense of dismissing a decorated fighter like Oliveira.

While Khabib Nurmagomedov never had the chance to fight Charles Oliveira, his protégé would go on to beat the veteran to capture the lightweight strap. Having battled each other, there’s a healthy respect between him and Islam Makhachev. For Javier Mendez, Oliveira is one of his favorite fighters ever, and he believes that it would be immature to believe that Oliveira will not put up a great fight against Ilia Topuria.

The former featherweight champion has been on a roll ever since he turned pro. He has yet to lose a fight and has finished 14 of his 16 opponents. When we take a look at Charles Oliveira’s record, he has two losses and two wins in his last four outings. Moreover, Tennis star Carlos Alcaraz has also weighed in on the UFC 317 lightweight title fight headliner, and much like the Spanish fan base, he also believes Topuria will get the better of Charles Oliveira.

Well, Javier Mendes is backing the Brazilian star to emerge victorious come Saturday. “It’s kind of stupid to count such a great champion like Charles. Charles is one of my favorites. So, outside of fighting us, I’m always rooting for him to win,” he told Submission Radio. The experience of performing not only under the bright lights of the UFC, but doing it for the last decade or so will certainly come into play for Oliveira.

However, Team Khabib’s head coach did not underestimate the ability of Ilia Topuria. Not only that, Javier Mendez even spoke about the possibility of Islam Makhachev fighting the Georgian-Spaniard star, but that depends on Dana White and Co. “I’m on Charles’s side. I want him to win even though I’m impressed with Topuria, and even though Topuria would be a better matchup for us later if they give us that opportunity. Or if Islam wants to go down to lightweight, or Topuria wants to go to… welterweight,” he added.

And that might just happen. Why? Well, Ilia Topuria has been looking for a fight against Islam Makhachev, and to get that, the former featherweight champion even expressed his openness to compete against the Dagestan native after moving up again. Here’s what he had to say.

Ilia Topuria is open to fight Islam Makhachev for the 170 belt

Ilia Topuria is looking to fight a quarter of a dozen times this year, and wants the UFC to make that happen. In one of those fights, we could see him take on Islam Makhachev. Topuria claims that if Islam Makachev could win their respective title fights, either he could move up or the Dagestan native could move back to 155 lbs, claiming that fans want this fight to happen.

“If he wins [and] I win the title in the lightweight, maybe I move up or he comes down to the lightweight division and we have the fight that everyone wants to see,” Ilia Topuria recently stated during a press conference. This will certainly be a blockbuster matchup for Dana White, who recently lost his dream heavyweight matchup between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall as ‘Bones’ retired.

But before he thinks about it, Ilia Topuria needs to prove all the skeptics wrong who say that moving to lightweight would not be a good decision. Javier Mendez said that Charles Oliveira is a tough cookie, and it would be interesting to watch what happens when UFC 317 is over. Please tell us what you think in the comments below.