Ilia Topuria ready to defend featherweight belt at 155 pounds against Max Holloway: "Please sign the contract"
Ilia Topuria recently took to X with a stipulation for his featherweight title defense against Max Holloway, which has not yet been made official. Nevertheless, 'El Matador' offered 'Blessed' the chance to compete for the UFC featherweight title without having to cut weight.
Instead, the Spaniard wants to face the Hawaiian legend in the weight class above, at lightweight. He made the statement in response to a recent clip of Dana White explaining the promotion's decision to have featherweights Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes fight at lightweight, which was made due to weight-cutting issues.
"Max, you won't have to cut to featherweight. I will defend the belt at 155 pounds, but please sign the contract."
The tweet is the latest stipulation that Topuria has suggested, as he previously claimed that he would only defend his featherweight title if Holloway put his newly minted 'BMF' belt on the line. It led to a back-and-forth between the pair on social media, for which 'El Matador' received some criticism.
Some in the MMA world perceived his behavior as unnecessarily difficult. Regardless, he is expected to face Holloway at some point in the year. However, the UFC is unlikely to accept his stipulation, as it would make little sense for him to defend the featherweight title at lightweight.
Meanwhile, former featherweight kingpin Alexander Volkanovski has been recovering on the sidelines, but also hoping for a title rematch with Topuria after the Spaniard's bout with Holloway. That, however, can only happen if Topuria manages to beat Holloway.
Neither Ilia Topuria nor Max Holloway are strangers to lightweight
Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway both have experience fighting at lightweight. 'El Matador' made his lightweight debut at UFC Fight Night 204, where he knocked out Jai Herbert in round two, having stepped in on short-notice for the latter's opponent, Mike Davis, who withdrew from the bout for personal reasons.
Check out Ilia Topuria knocking out Jai Herbert below:
Meanwhile, Holloway has competed twice in the UFC lightweight division, first facing Dustin Poirier in an entertaining war for the interim lightweight strap. Unfortunately, Holloway came out the loser of that fight. Years later, he took on Justin Gaethje for the 'BMF' belt, knocking him out in Round 5.