Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev are at an impasse. After all, the Spanish-Georgian superstar has vowed to sit out and not fight until the lightweight god-king agrees to fight him for the 155lbs belt, which had been promised to him by the UFC before Topuria vacated his featherweight belt and moved up. On the other hand, Makhachev’s mentor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, has come out publicly and expressed his strong opposition to the lightweight kingpin fighting Topuria next. ”

“OK, let’s imagine Topuria moves up and gets a title shot right away, and Islam beats him. Then Topuria fights again, he loses again, so basically he was a nobody at 155. Islam beat a guy who was a nobody at 155.” Nurmagomedov recently told Adam Zubayraev. And while the UFC world is divided on the topic, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad, who is friends with ‘Team Khabib’, stands firmly with the Dagestanis.

In fact, ‘Bully B’ made an extensive and detailed case for why Makhachev shouldn’t fight Topuria next, which might just convince some people on the other side. “I’m with him [Khabib], right. I think he needs to earn it. I think he needs to fight either Oliveira or Justin, or even Paddy right now, to show the fans that, all right, he is a lightweight. Because you’re going to look at it, and then you’re going to see how much bigger Islam is than him. And then there are people are going to say the same thing. What happened when Islam beat Volkanovski? ‘Oh well, you just beat a ’45er’. That’s all you did, he’s smaller. Look at his title reign, it was a ’45er, another ’45er,'” Muhammad told ‘MMA Junkie’ in an interview.

“But Volkanovski at the time was the number one pound-for-pound guy… And for Topuria, yeah, he looked amazing in his last two fights with Holloway and Volk. Those are huge wins. But like, there are still other contenders, right? You got Movsar there that you didn’t fight. He was undefeated. You had Diego there that you didn’t fight,” he added.

“There are guys at lightweight that earned the title shot and deserve the title shot right now, right like Justin Gaehtje…  So, guys that Islam hasn’t fought already. So there’s really no need for Islam to like risk it for Topuria when there’s not much to gain from it, when it’s just going to be the same old he’s a lot smaller, size matters, weight bully, this and that,” ‘Bully B’ concluded.

Indeed, being a weight bully is a charge that Makhachev faces since his walkaround weight is in the 190-pound range! Moreover, Makhachev’s record-breaking four title defenses are questioned by many. Many of them feel that since fifty percent of them have come against a featherweight, they don’t count as ‘proper’ lightweight title defenses. So yeah, Muhammad does make a convincing case. Even if Makhachev beats Topuria, there will be those who downplay that win over similar lines as his Volkanovski wins are criticized.

But you know what could change that? ‘La Leyenda’ beating a top lightweight contender like Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan, or even Paddy Pimblett to prove he belongs at 155lbs. This, in a nutshell, is also the case Khabib Nurmagomedov has made and why he opposes Makhachev-Topuria next. But ‘La Leyenda’ feels that there is a different reason why ‘The Eagle’ doesn’t want him to fight Makhachev next.

Ilia Topuria trashes Khabib Nurmagomedov over lightweight title shot refusal

“Khabib knows I’m the one to take the belt from Islam. The only reason he doesn’t want Islam to fight me,” Ilia Topuria tweeted of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s opposition to him facing Islam Makhachev next.

As usual, ‘La Leyenda’ is supremely confident. But perhaps his claim that ‘The Eagle’ is scared he would beat Makhachev is a bit too far-fetched. After all, Nurmagomedov has floated the idea that the lightweight champ face Arman Tsarukyan next precisely because he thinks the Armenian #1 ranked lightweight would be a tougher fight for Makhachev.

“My personal opinion– not necessarily [more] dangerous, let’s say more competitive — I think it’s Tsarukyan. I think Arman is a more serious fighter than Topuria. Topuria is a good fighter at 145, but we haven’t seen him at 155. I believe Arman is more competitive for Islam than Topuria,” ‘The Eagle’ told Adam Zubayraev.

Well, Nurmagomedov and Topuria can keep arguing about the reason why ‘The Eagle’ doesn’t want to fight Makhachev. But the fact remains, Makhachev is not going to fight Topuria next. What do you think about Belal Muhammad’s take on the Islam Makahchev-Ilia Topuria situation?