After clinching the victory against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, Ilia Topuria became the new featherweight champion. Months after his victory, Topuria is looking to defend his title against Max Holloway on the highly stacked UFC Abu Dhabi card. Despite the challenge posed by Holloway, Topuria is looking far beyond the former featherweight champion. ‘El Matador’ has been engaged in a beef with the entire team Khabib as he has challenged Islam Makhachev to a fight.

Ilia Topuria emphasized that he would love to move up to the lightweight division to take on the champion, “Why not (move up to lightweight)? I’ve done it once, I could do it again. The truth is that of course I do (see myself fighting Makhachev). He’s a great fighter. Sometimes he talks too much, sometimes not.” But is he really serious about facing the lightweight champion?

Ilia Topuria confesses about facing Islam Makhachev in the future

We are just 19 days away from witnessing the clash between Max Holloway and Ilia Topuria but despite that ‘El Matador’ is looking to piece up against the undisputed lightweight champ, Islam Makhachev. While having a conversation with his fans through his Instagram Live, a fan asked the featherweight champion about his intention to face the Dagestani in the future, to which he stated that people should stop asking this question.

“How many times [will people ask] already, right? Absolutely. Of course… Makhachev, real soon. [I] hope Makhachev will be next after this fight. [I] hope after this fight,” said Topuria. Before looking for a chance to fight for the champ-champ status, ‘El Matador’ will have to make sure that he gets past Max Holloway first. In addition to that, Makhachev has several conditions for Topuria to get his hands on the title shot.

According to Dagestani, the reigning featherweight champion will have to clear his entire division before fighting him for the champ-champ status, “If he beats Max [and] if he beats Movsar Evloev [he can potentially fight for lightweight championship]… He has a big job to do in his division.”

Despite his initial desire to fight, Ili͏a Topuria will have to wait. The lig͏htwei͏ght champio͏n is͏ recovering from͏ a han͏d injury sustained in his figh͏t against Dus͏tin Po͏irier, and in addition, ͏M͏akhachev is scheduled to defen͏d͏ ͏his titl͏e against͏ A͏r͏man ͏Tsaruky͏an first. Regardless, in addition to Team Khabib, the welterweight champion appears to be irked by Ilia Topuria’s unfazed attitude.

Belal Muhammad warns Ilia Topuria of repercussions

The welterweight champion of the world, Belal Muhammad has called out Ilia Topuria and advised him to not meddle with the plans as well as with the affairs of Islam Makahchev as this could heavily backfire against him. While in conversation with Helen Yee, the undisputed champion emphasized that Topuria is making a big mistake by making enemies out of Team Khabib. Belal Muhammad rather advised to stop this and focus on Max Holloway.

“Be careful what you wish for, right? If you’re Ilia, you got a lot of guys in your division you still have to fight. Ilia’s getting to that point where you’re undefeated, you’re getting a lot of hype, so now you’re starting to callout and play that game of trying to be the next [Conor] McGregor, but don’t mess with Islam,” said ‘Remember The Name’ as he gave a response to Ilia Topuria street fight jibe.

He further added, “Like they said, it’s different there [in Dagestan]. If you want to street fight, they’ll street fight. Islam doesn’t care about, ‘Oh, let’s get paid for it.’ He sees you, you disrespect him, he’s going to show you what disrespect means from Dagestan.”

The rivalry between the champions might give us one of the best matchups. Regardless, what’s your take on their beef? State your thoughts in the comments below.