{"id":36976,"date":"2026-02-28T19:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Ilia-Topuria-names-Top-3-potential-matchups-200292"},"modified":"2026-02-28T19:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:30:29","slug":"ilia-topuria-names-top-3-potential-matchups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/ilia-topuria-names-top-3-potential-matchups\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria names Top 3 potential matchups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>\u2019s top three preferred matchups include Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Topuria recently revealed that his top three preferred opponents
\nare Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a>, McGregor, and Paddy
\nPimblett<\/a>. Topuria added that he would love to hand Pimblett the
\nfirst knockout loss of his career.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIslam, Conor, and Paddy,\u201d Topuria told Adin Ross on a Kick stream.
\n\u201c\u2026 I\u2019d love to do that – to be the first one [to KO Paddy]. If
\nsomeone else did it, I can do it too. And if no one did it, I can
\nalways be the first to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

High-Profile Foes<\/h2>\n

Topuria (17-0) was the featherweight champion when he started
\nrallying for a double champ bid against then-lightweight champ
\nIslam
\nMakhachev<\/a>. However, that matchup never came to fruition as
\nMakhachev moved up and won the welterweight title. Meanwhile,
\nTopuria moved up and became the lightweight champion. While both
\nparties continue to tease the matchup, Makhachev is unwilling to
\nmove down to lightweight. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, McGregor hasn\u2019t fought since breaking his leg in a
\ntrilogy loss against Dustin
\nPoirier<\/a> in 2021. However, Topuria\u2019s interest in fighting
\nMcGregor speaks volumes about how big a draw \u201cNotorious\u201d still
\nis.  <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Topuria and Pimblett have a history between them. The
\nbeef started with Pimblett\u2019s insensitive comments about Topuria\u2019s
\nhome country of Georgia. \u201cThe Baddy\u201d even threw a bottle of hand
\nsanitizer at Topuria at a fighter hotel in London in 2022. After
\nwinning the lightweight title, Topuria clearly expressed his
\ninterest in defending it against Pimblett.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> was threatening retirement if denied a title shot. When
\nTopuria took a short hiatus, Gaethje and Pimblett fought for the
\ninterim lightweight title at UFC 324 this past January. Gaethje
\nscored a unanimous decision win over Pimblett and is now set to
\nfight Topuria in a title unifier later this year. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> reveals the three fighters that excite him the most –
\nIslam
\nMakhachev<\/a>, Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a>, and Paddy
\nPimblett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to do that – to be the first one [to KO Paddy]. If
\nsomeone else did it, I can do it too. And if no one has done it, I
\ncan always be the first to do\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/OvEc6UgL9W<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nFebruary 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilia Topuria\u2019s top three preferred matchups include Conor McGregor.  Topuria recently revealed that his top three preferred opponents are Islam Makhachev, McGregor, and Paddy Pimblett. Topuria added that he would love to hand Pimblett the first knockout loss of his career. Advertisement \u201cIslam, Conor, and Paddy,\u201d Topuria told Adin Ross on a Kick stream. \u201c\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}