Alexander Volkanovski's coach slams Ilia Topuria for eyeing Islam Makhachev fight: "You’re just holding up divisions"
Alexander Volkanovski's coach Joe Lopez has seemingly disapproved of Ilia Topuria's pursuit of a super-fight against UFC lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev. Additionally, he put forth his take regarding the much-discussed potential Makhachev-Topuria fight.
Topuria captured the UFC featherweight title with a second-round KO victory against Volkanovski in February 2024. 'El Matador' then notched his first successful title defense by beating former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway via third-round KO in October 2024. Topuria thereby became the first fighter to knock the legendarily resilient Holloway out.
Before and after the Holloway fight, Topuria consistently campaigned for an opportunity to face UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at lightweight for the latter's title. He's lately traded several barbs with the Dagestani combatant.
During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Joe Lopez acknowledged the possibility of his student Alexander Volkanovski facing Ilia Topuria in a rematch for the featherweight title next. The coach believes Volkanovski can avenge his defeat. When asked about Topuria's ambition to beat Makhachev and become a two-division champion, Lopez stated:
"Oh that's great, but you got to have, like with anybody, you got to have at least five or six title defenses before you start looking at doubling up, you know. You're just holding up divisions. When you've cleared out a division, then you've got the right to jump up a division. But till then, you just got to fight the guys in your division."
Lopez deemed Topuria's campaigning as "human nature," He implied that most fighters are understandably allured by the double-champ status because it's rare. Nevertheless, he feels 'El Matador' hasn't earned it yet.
Topuria is eyeing Makhachev's lightweight title. Meanwhile, 'Volk' has continued pursuing a featherweight title rematch against him. Volkanovski's also open to an interim featherweight title fight against Diego Lopes at UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia, in February 2025.
For his part, Topuria underscored that he's not interested in defending his belt on Volkanovski's home turf at UFC 312. Instead, the Georgian-Spaniard pitched Madrid as the ideal location for a rematch against the Aussie MMA great.
Check out Joe Lopez's comments below (12:43):
Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria: Alexander Volkanovski's coach Joe Lopez on the hypothetical fight
Expounding upon a hypothetical Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria showdown, Joe Lopez explained that Makhachev's striking and wrestling are good and he's the bigger fighter. However, he signaled that it still remains to be seen who'd win that fight.
Furthermore, Ilia Topuria recently remarked that he'd like to be the first to submit grappling savant Islam Makhachev. When asked about the same, Lopez chimed in by saying:
"Yeah. Look, you can't take that away from Ilia because what he said he's been doing. So he might just be the first guy to do it. So you can't take that away from him." [14:00-minute mark of the aforementioned video]