Ilia Topuria rips 'hypocrite' Islam Makhachev, claims he ran away from UFC title fight
Ilia Topuria rips 'hypocrite' Islam Makhachev, claims he ran away from UFC title fight
Ilia Topuria went off on Islam Makhachev for moving up to welterweight instead of fighting him.
Before Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) vacated his UFC lightweight title, he dismissed ex-featherweight champ Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) as his next title challenger. He wasn't interested in defending his belt against another 145-pounder coming up a weight class after two of his four lightweight title defenses coming over Alexander Volkanovski.
Makhachev has always wanted to become a two-weight division UFC champion, but with his friend Belal Muhammad holding the welterweight title, he held off his aspirations. Now that Muhammad lost his welterweight belt to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315, Makhachev has relinquished his lightweight belt to challenge Della Maddalena.
Topuria, who now meets Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title in the UFC 317 headliner on June 28, called out Makhachev for making the same move as him.
"(Islam) is the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen," Topuria recently said in a translated press conference (h/t Marca, Championship Rounds). "He said he didn't want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy, and now the little guy is the one looking for the same opportunity I was looking for. How are you going to criticize my decision when you're doing the same thing right now? I've never seen more hypocrisy in my life."
Topuria thinks Makhachev never wanted any part of fighting him.
"Ali (Abdelaziz) should thank me for not beating his star, and that today, he still has value and some credibility is thanks to me," Topuria said. "This was the fight everyone wanted to see, I was ready for it, I put everything I could on the table, and they ran away, and from the beginning, they never, ever accepted the fight."
Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie that Makhachev vs. Topuria would have happened next had Muhammad retained his title against Della Maddalena at UFC 315, but Topuria doesn't believe him.
"They're lying, they're liars," Topuria said. "That's a complete lie, that's not the truth. But, I understand that it's his job to clean up the mess his clients leave behind."
Would Topuria consider moving up to welterweight to go after Makhachev?
"But why chase him?," Topuria responded. "If someone runs away, you don't have to bully them. If he runs away, we have to let him get away. I don't want to fight people who don't want to fight me either."
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