{"id":38772,"date":"2026-06-13T17:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Islam-Makhachev-blames-Ilia-Topuria-for-cancellation-of-UFC-White-House-booking-201509"},"modified":"2026-06-13T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:56:12","slug":"islam-makhachev-blames-ilia-topuria-for-cancellation-of-ufc-white-house-booking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/islam-makhachev-blames-ilia-topuria-for-cancellation-of-ufc-white-house-booking\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev blames Ilia Topuria for cancellation of UFC White House booking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n


\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> welterweight king Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> doubled down on his claims of having accepted a fight
\nagainst Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Topuria is scheduled to defend his lightweight title against
\ninterim champion Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> in the
\nUFC White House: Freedom 250<\/a> main event on Sunday. According to
\nreports, the original plan was for Topuria to challenge Makhachev
\nfor the welterweight title.<\/p>\n

\n

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

Topuria (17-0) initially blamed Makhachev (28-1) for the matchup
\nfalling through. Even Dana White said that Makhachev was out with a
\nhand injury. However, Makhachev has thoroughly denied being injured
\nor turning down a fight against Topuria. Makhachev recently
\nreiterated that he had accepted the offer without any hesitation.
\nHowever, Makhachev\u2019s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, called him the very
\nnext day to inform that the booking was off. Makhachev claims
\nnegotiations failed when Topuria\u2019s manager, Malki Kawa, demanded an
\ninsane fight purse. The Dagestani champ also notes that Kawa had
\nhimself admitted turning down the fight due to inadequate pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can show you the chats with my manager\u2026 He called me, \u2018The White
\nHouse event, a fight against Topuria.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Let\u2019s go,\u2019
\nright away,\u201d Makhachev told Red Corner MMA. \u201cI didn\u2019t even ask for
\nit, but Ali said that the pay would be higher because it was the
\nWhite House. And I said, \u2018It\u2019s even better.\u2019 But the next day he
\ncalled me and said, \u2018It\u2019s cancelled.\u2019 I said, \u2018Why, what went
\nwrong?\u2019 And he told me that [Topuria] asked for some insane money.
\nAnd that was it\u2026 His manager himself said it in an interview, \u2018The
\nmoney we were offered for the fight was not enough, so we turned it
\ndown.\u2019… Ilia may say whatever he wants, but it was his manager
\nwho negotiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kawa said that they had initially chosen Makhachev over Gaethje.
\nHowever, Kawa claims the money offered wasn\u2019t enough for a booking
\nas big as Makhachev.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“My manager said, ‘The White House event
\nagainst Topuria.’ I said, ‘Let’s go’ right away.”<\/p>\n

Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a> discusses the failed negotiations for a White House
\nclash with Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> and makes it clear he disagrees with the narrative
\nsurrounding the fight\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n

Watch full\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/D9ExBIEAq7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nJune 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Islam Makhachev doubled down on his claims of having accepted a fight against Ilia Topuria. Topuria is scheduled to defend his lightweight title against interim champion Justin Gaethje in the UFC White House: Freedom 250 main event on Sunday. According to reports, the original plan was for Topuria to challenge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38772","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\/38772","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=38772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}