{"id":37115,"date":"2026-03-09T06:51:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Report-Islam-Makhachev-vs-Ilia-Topuria-was-original-plan-for-UFC-White-House-200386"},"modified":"2026-03-09T06:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:51:32","slug":"report-islam-makhachev-vs-ilia-topuria-was-original-plan-for-ufc-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/report-islam-makhachev-vs-ilia-topuria-was-original-plan-for-ufc-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria was original plan for UFC White House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

A planned booking between Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> and Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> reportedly fell through at the last minute. <\/p>\n

Interim lightweight champion Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> will fight the champion Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> in the main event at the
\nUFC White House<\/a> card, also billed as Freedom Fights 250, on
\nJune 14. According to the latest rumors, the original plan was for
\nTopuria to challenge Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> for the welterweight title in the main
\nevent. <\/p>\n

\n

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

Irati Prat of Marca reported that the
\nUFC<\/a> received information at the last minute that Makhachev
\nwouldn\u2019t fight at the White House. Prat notes that Dana White had
\nmentioned a fight falling through, and UFC matchmakers suddenly had
\nlong faces at the UFC 326 ceremonial weigh-ins amid hushed
\nwhispers. Prat further noted that even Gaethje acknowledged that he
\nwas originally told that he would not fight at the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Friday night, it was announced that Islam would NOT fight. Dana
\nWhite’s comments about a fight falling through and long faces at
\nthe ceremonial weigh-in,\u201d Prati wrote on social media (via Google
\nTranslate). \u201cThere’s an agreement: Makhachev vs. Topuria. It’s
\ngoing to happen. At this point, Gaethje wasn’t going to fight. On
\nSunday, he acknowledged this timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMakhachev vs. Topuria at welterweight is the plan for [the White
\nHouse]. It’s the fight Ilia wanted, the one that motivates him.
\nNegotiations didn’t begin until last week. Ali Abdelaziz tweeted
\nthat the UFC is planning the biggest fight possible.\u201d

<\/p>\n
\n

Hay acuerdo: Makhachev vs Topuria. Va a
\nocurrir<\/p>\n

A estas alturas, Gaethje no iba a pelear. El domingo reconoce este
\ntiming<\/p>\n

El viernes por la noche, se comunica que Islam NO va a pelear.
\nPalabras de Dana sobre que se ha ca\u00eddo una pelea y caras largas en
\nel pesaje ceremonial pic.twitter.com\/C1e7b1lSLP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Irati Prat (@IratiPratSC)
\nMarch 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center>

<\/p>\n
\n

Makhachev vs Topuria en peso welter es el
\nplan para Casa Blanca. Es la pelea que Ilia quer\u00eda, la que le
\nmotiva.<\/p>\n

Las negociaciones no se activan hasta la semana pasada<\/p>\n

Ali Abdelaziz lanza un tuit diciendo que UFC planea la pelea m\u00e1s
\ngrande posible pic.twitter.com\/hrsfI9h01C<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Irati Prat (@IratiPratSC)
\nMarch 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Quick Pivot<\/h2>\n

Gaethje revealed that a couple of days ago, it was confirmed that
\nhe would not be on the White House card. However, a day before the
\nfinal announcement of the card, Gaethje was told that there was
\nchance of him fighting at the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo days ago I got a call and they said, \u2018You\u2019re definitely not
\nfighting at the White House card\u2019\u2026 And then yesterday I got a call
\nand they said, \u2018You might hear something. You might be on the White
\nHouse card,\u201d Gaethje said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\ud83d\udea8 Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> says he was told on Thursday he would NOT be fighting
\nat the UFC White House event<\/p>\n

Then one day later on Friday, the UFC called and told him he might
\nactually be on the card<\/p>\n

(via @ufc<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/WrJGGSpBTa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
\nMarch 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

A planned booking between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria reportedly fell through at the last minute.  Interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje will fight the champion Ilia Topuria in the main event at the UFC White House card, also billed as Freedom Fights 250, on June 14. According to the latest rumors, the original plan was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37115","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\/37115","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=37115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}