Dana White reacts to Ilia Topuria's desire to chase Islam Makhachev to welterweight
Dana White was asked about Ilia Topuria's ambitious goal of chasing a third UFC title.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) meets Charles Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) for the vacant lightweight title in Saturday's UFC 317 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
When Topuria vacated his UFC featherweight title, he was hoping to challenge Islam Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) for the lightweight belt. However, when Makhachev relinquished his 155-pound title for his own move up a division, the fight was no longer a possibility.
"If Islam becomes the world welterweight champion, for sure I'm going to push for that shot and I will move to the welterweight division," Topuria said Friday at a media scrum ahead of an open workout in Las Vegas.
White wants Topuria to slow his role, but he didn't entirely rule out the possibility of the matchup happening.
"Listen, we'll see how this thing plays out," White said during the UFC on ABC 8 post-fight press conference. "He just moved up. We're already talking about him going to 170? I mean, he just moved up. Let's see how he does in this fight, and we'll see how Islam does. They definitely want to fight each other."
Makhachev is expected to challenge UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena later in the year.
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