On a candid Wednesday evening, UFC CEO Dana White dropped a series of bombshell announcements, shaking up the promotion’s plans for the first half of the year. The biggest revelation? Ilia Topuria is vacating the featherweight title and officially moving up to the lightweight division. According to White, ‘El Matador’ feels he has done all he can at 145 lbs and is ready for a new challenge. “his body just can’t make the weight anymore,” White revealed during an Instagram Live session. However, the move has sparked plenty of speculation among fans. Some believe it’s a logical next step for the undefeated Spanish-Georgian fighter, while others wonder if he’s following in the footsteps of his former “idol,” Conor McGregor, by chasing two-division glory at lightweight.

However, according to Topuria’s head coach, Jorge Climent, “He’s done it a lot of times and it’s harder every time we do it. He doesn’t want to do this anymore.” This statement sparked further doubt in fans and MMA pundits about whether the weight issue is truly the main factor behind the Georgian-Spaniard’s move to lightweight, especially considering his 5’6″ frame, often referred to as “smaller” by Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The Dagestani camp’s close friend and MMA veteran Daniel Cormier, who, while speaking to Chael Sonnen on their podcast Good Guy/Bad Guy, gave Topuria a wake-up call before his potential clash against Islam Makhachev. DC said, “He’s [Ilia] a champion through and through, but when I see him, right, he’s not a big guy. I don’t feel like he’s a big guy. So, to hear he says he can’t make 145 anymore seems a bit odd to me because I see Makhachev, I saw Khabib as the champ, hell, I see Chandler and dude, Oliveira is massive. These guys are bigger, much bigger than Ilia Topuria.”

Cormier cautioned that the Georgian-Spaniard might be repeating the same mistake Conor McGregor made when he moved up to a higher weight class immediately after winning the title, without a single defense, rushing into a division filled with much larger opponents. Khabib Nurmagomedov was taller than McGregor and the Irishman paid the price at UFC 229. And so are Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, both standing at 5’10” in comparison to Topuria’s 5’7”.

Regardless of the reason behind ‘El Matador’s transition to lightweight, there’s no turning back now. With his path to the division clear, the big question remains: What’s the timeline for the Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev showdown? Let’s hear it from Ariel Helwani.

Ariel Helwani reveals the timeline for the Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria fight

Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev was never just a hypothetical matchup. In fact, renowned MMA journalist Kevin Iole described it as “the biggest non-Conor McGregor fight the UFC has ever put on”—and he wasn’t wrong. Initially, both Makhachev and Team Khabib dismissed the idea of facing the Georgian-Spaniard. At times, the Dagestani native insisted that Topuria should first finish his featherweight run, while at other times, he outright rejected the fight, calling it “unfair” and stating he was “tired of giving chances to small guys.”

Meanwhile, Khabib suggested that Ilia Topuria should first prove himself against top-ranked lightweights like Dustin Poirier or Charles Oliveira before earning a shot at the lightweight belt—unlike Alexander Volkanovski, who received back-to-back title fights against Islam Makhachev. Despite these objections, Helwani now indicates that the Georgian-Spaniard is likely getting a direct title shot. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Helwani revealed that the UFC is eyeing Makhachev vs. Topuria at UFC 317 for International Fight Week in June, one of the promotion’s biggest annual PPV events.

“All signs from what I am hearing seem to point to an Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev fight perhaps as soon as International Fight Week. And if you ask me, that is International Fight Week-worthy. That is a mammoth, mammoth fight, that’s a massive fight. And the kind of spark, the kind of big-time fight that the UFC seems to have been searching for over the last couple of months. It would be gigantic. But it’s not done, it is not signed.”

What are your thoughts on Ilia Topuria’s move to the lightweight division? Can he hold his own against bigger opponents like Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev? While UFC’s top-ranked lightweight contender, Arman Tsarukyan, is also 5’7″, his physique is noticeably larger and more muscular than the Georgian-Spaniard’s. Could this size difference put Topuria at a disadvantage in the division?