Ilia Topuria is a simple man with simple goals for the rest of his UFC career. “My goals in the UFC is to stay undefeated, to keep knocking people out,” the UFC featherweight champion said on the ‘Full Send’ podcast. More importantly, ‘El Matador’ doesn’t just want to notch up knockouts because it would look good on his record. No. His quest for more stoppages is borne out of a love for the fans.

“I don’t go only in to just win, you know. I fight for the fans. I want to entertain people, I want them to enjoy. Like, when I go somewhere, I want people to offer me a great show, that’s why I put my money there. So I want to do the same thing to all the fans and be as big as I can,” Topuria said.

This, of course, would be music to fans’ ears. After all, Topuria is already in the featherweight GOAT conversation. Knocking out the two best featherweights in the world (Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway) in one year will do that. Now he could have taken it easy and coasted on his already established reputation like a certain Irish former featherweight champion. But no, Topuria seems more interested in following in Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s footsteps- and not just by remaining undefeated.

“I want to go to the lightweight division now,” Topuria added. “If the UFC wants me to give me that opportunity. I will become a two-weight class world champion and I want to keep doing things like things like that. And outside the cage, as I told you before, I want to motivate and inspire people.”

Topuria, of course, has long wanted to move up to lightweight, beat Islam Makhachev, and become champion there. But not just become champion, but do it in style. “We all know at some point I will connect that punch, everything will depend on what God will decide… if he wants to send Islam to sleep or not,” Topuria has said of Makhachev. In addition, the featherweight champ has also claimed that he “can also submit him [Makhachev].” The common theme being he will stop Makhachev, or at least try to. However, there are still a lot of questions about his plans to move up which remain unanswered.

Will Ilia Topuria move up to lightweight for good?

Now there are two ways Ilia Topuria could move up to lightweight. The first is the predictable route of Topuria moving up for a lightweight title fight with whoever the champion is and then moving back down to 145. He could perhaps return to 155 to defend his second belt, or he may vacate the lightweight throne and get back to work at featherweight.

The other possibility, however, is that ‘El Matador’ moves up to lightweight for good. And that seems more probable if Topuria’s coach is right. “The real thing is, I think he hates that weight. 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 and this is why he wants to go up to the next weight class because he thinks his normal weight is that weight class,” Topuria’s coach, Jorge Climent told ‘Submission Radio’ in an interview in December last year.

To be fair, Topuria had quickly clarified that he planned to stay at 145. But, it seems the Spanish-Georgian champ does still harbor intentions of moving up. Exactly when, how, and against who, and for how long, however, remain to be seen. What do you think about Ilia Topuria’s comments about his future plans?