{"id":37515,"date":"2026-04-01T15:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Islam-Makhachev-reacts-to-photo-of-Ilia-Topuria-and-Michael-Morales-200688"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:17:10","slug":"islam-makhachev-reacts-to-photo-of-ilia-topuria-and-michael-morales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/islam-makhachev-reacts-to-photo-of-ilia-topuria-and-michael-morales\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev reacts to photo of Ilia Topuria and Michael Morales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> continues to keep fans guessing. <\/p>\n

Michael
\nMorales<\/a> recently met up with Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> in Madrid, Spain. Both Morales and Topuria are
\npotential opponents for Makhachev. The welterweight champion had a
\ncryptic response to a photo of Morales and Topuria posing together.
\nMakhachev responded with a telephone emoji, hinting at a potential
\nmatchup between one of the two next. <\/p>\n

Makhachev (28-1) and Topuria (17-0) have long been on a collision
\ncourse. Topuria was the featherweight champion when he started
\ncalling for a lightweight title shot against then-champion
\nMakhachev, who eventually moved up to welterweight. Topuria also
\nsubsequently moved up to lightweight and won the title. A matchup
\nbetween Topuria and Makhachev was rumored to be the original plan
\nfor the White House card in June. However, Topuria is now scheduled
\nto defend his title against interim champion Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> at
\nUFC White House<\/a> on June 14. <\/p>\n

A More Likely Option<\/h2>\n

With Makhachev expected to return this summer, the chances of a
\nclash against Topuria seem bleak. Meanwhile, Makhachev manager Ali
\nAbdelaziz has promised that the Dagestani champ will defend his
\ntitle against a real welterweight next. This means Makhachev\u2019s
\ncryptic reaction is likely hinting at a matchup against Morales
\nnext. Morales (19-0) laid claim to contender status by knocking out
\nSean
\nBrady<\/a> at UFC 322<\/a>
\nthis past November. The undefeated Ecuadorian has finished five of
\nhis seven
\nUFC<\/a> wins so far. 

<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\n

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

Islam Makhachev continues to keep fans guessing.  Michael Morales recently met up with Ilia Topuria in Madrid, Spain. Both Morales and Topuria are potential opponents for Makhachev. The welterweight champion had a cryptic response to a photo of Morales and Topuria posing together. Makhachev responded with a telephone emoji, hinting at a potential matchup between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37515","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\/37515","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=37515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}