Ilia Topuria is setting a dangerous precedent in the UFC, and he should not be allowed to pull this Conor McGregor move
Ilia Topuria and Conor McGregor are beheld as exceptional MMA fighters. They've both held UFC gold. Nevertheless, they've also faced criticism from certain quarters, being accused of utilizing excessive trash talk, sometimes even against each other!
A notable criticism against McGregor is of allegedly holding up – and, in Topuria's case, hinting at holding up – their weight class during their respective title reigns. Topuria has long been lobbying for a title shot against UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. The UFC featherweight champion is even willing to fight top contender Charles Oliveira before potentially facing Makhachev for the belt.
Additionally, Topuria's coach Jorge Climent recently indicated that he doesn't like cutting to featherweight, so he'd probably compete at lightweight next. As such, many are calling for Topuria to relinquish the featherweight belt. Nevertheless, Topuria signaled that he'll pursue the lightweight belt while still holding featherweight gold:
"I will not leave the title vacant. The decision to move up to the next category is entirely mine. I haven't had any conversations with the UFC yet, so everything is still to be decided. Stop celebrating because I'm not going anywhere. I have conquered my division and I will do the same in the next one."
Ilia Topuria, Conor McGregor, and a sense of déjà vu
Conor McGregor won the interim UFC featherweight title by stopping Chad Mendes via second-round TKO in July 2015. The Irishman then won the undisputed featherweight belt with a 13-second KO of Jose Aldo that December. However, McGregor couldn't notch a title defense, as his next couple of fights came against Nate Diaz in the welterweight division.
Following that, McGregor beat then-UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez via second-round TKO in November 2016 to become the first-ever fighter to hold two UFC titles simultaneously. While fighters like Randy Couture had won UFC titles in two divisions, they hadn't held both belts together. McGregor was stripped of the featherweight belt later that month owing to his inactivity in the division.
Also, his aforementioned legendary feat notwithstanding, the Irishman never returned to featherweight to defend his belt. He was unable to defend the lightweight title either, as he went on to face boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their iconic 'money fight' in August 2017. McGregor was stripped of the lightweight title in April 2018, again because 'The Notorious' was inactive in the division.
A number of fans argued that the divisions were hurt due to McGregor being inactive. Top contenders resultantly had to either keep fighting others, losing out on potential title shots or, at the very least, losing precious time from their careers. Topuria is on the verge of doing the same.
Topuria holding up the featherweight division could be an even worse precedent than when McGregor did it because the sport is even more mainstream now – ironically, largely owing to McGregor!
Truth be told, Topuria has defended his featherweight championship just once and surely needs to notch a few more title defenses against top contenders like Movsar Evloev and Diego Lopes before the UFC hands him a lightweight championship shot.
This way, the world's premier MMA organization could set a stern example for champions who, despite being relatively recently crowned, choose to pursue 'champ-champ' status and stagnate their own division.
Check out Conor McGregor's octagon interview at UFC 205 below: