{"id":38579,"date":"2026-06-01T16:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Islam-Makhachev-believes-Ilia-Topuria-will-rule-UFC-lightweight-division-201400"},"modified":"2026-06-01T16:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:44:21","slug":"islam-makhachev-believes-ilia-topuria-will-rule-ufc-lightweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/islam-makhachev-believes-ilia-topuria-will-rule-ufc-lightweight-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev believes Ilia Topuria will rule UFC lightweight division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> doesn\u2019t hesitate to give credit where it\u2019s
\ndue. <\/p>\n

Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> will look to defend his lightweight title against
\nJustin
\nGaethje<\/a> at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House. While
\nMakhachev believes Gaethje still has a chance, he thinks \u201cThe
\nHighlight\u201d is a little past his prime. Makhachev believes Topuria
\nwill rule atop the lightweight division in the near future.<\/p>\n

\n

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

\u201cTopuria is the new generation,\u201d Makhachev told UFC on TNT Sports.
\n\u201cI still believe Gaethje can do something. But he\u2019s a little bit
\nold right now. He\u2019s a good fighter, legend. He showed us many very
\ngood fights. But now I think it\u2019s Topuria\u2019s time for
\nlightweight.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Might Have Been<\/h2>\n

A matchup between Topuria (17-0) and Makhachev (28-1) is arguably
\nthe most anticipated matchup in recent history. Topuria was the
\nfeatherweight champion when he started calling out Makhachev, who
\nwas the lightweight champion then. However, Makhachev didn\u2019t want
\nto give Topuria a title shot until \u201cEl Matador\u201d had proven himself
\nat lightweight. Makhachev eventually moved up to welterweight and
\ndethroned Jack
\nDella Maddalena<\/a> to win the title.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Topuria moved up and knocked out Charles
\nOliveira<\/a> to win the vacant lightweight title. Rumors suggest
\nthat a matchup between the two was originally being planned for the
\nmain event of the UFC White House card on June 14. However, Dana
\nWhite has refuted those rumors. While there was some trash talk
\ninitially exchanged, Topuria recently said that he doesn\u2019t think
\nMakhachev is ducking him. Topuria believes the UFC doesn\u2019t want to
\nmake the matchup. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> believes it’s Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>‘s time to reign at Lightweight heading into the
\nJustin
\nGaethje<\/a> fight at the White House \ud83c\udfc6#Freedom250<\/a>
\n|
\n#UFCWhiteHouse<\/a> | Stream TNT Sports on HBO Max pic.twitter.com\/VcAiz0kEsr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt)
\nMay 31, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Islam Makhachev doesn\u2019t hesitate to give credit where it\u2019s due.  Ilia Topuria will look to defend his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House. While Makhachev believes Gaethje still has a chance, he thinks \u201cThe Highlight\u201d is a little past his prime. Makhachev believes Topuria will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38579","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\/38579","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=38579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}