The Lightweight division has a new combatant in the midst of already amazing fighters competing to get to the throne where Islam Makhachev sits at the moment. The new addition is none other than former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, who has started on his journey to fulfill his dream of becoming a dual-weight champ. But hold on, because the path is not that smooth. Topuria might have to fight someone else before getting to Makhachev, and he does not prefer that; he plans to wait for the Dagestani. “I would like to fight with Islam, that is for sure. I wouldn’t fight for a No. 1 contender fight. If  Islam decides he doesn’t want to fight me. I’ll sit until you’re gonna have to fight me,” he said to Joe Rogan on JRE MMA Show #166.

Meanwhile, Makhachev does not want to fight ‘La Leyenda’, fearing a win would be overlooked as another triumph over a featherweight. What about Paddy Pimblett and Topuria? ‘The Baddy’ won against Michael Chandler with a masterclass performance at UFC 314 via KO/TKO in Round 3. Naturally, he is in the top 10 now, sitting at #8, and called out many top lightweights like Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira. Topuria said that he would love to fight Pimblett since that would be a big PPV event, but there is one problem with this matchup, as per Michael Bisping.

In a recent video, ‘The Count’ said the reason, stating, “The only problem with Paddy versus Ilia is that you exclude one of them from these big matchups. Of course, Ilia Topuria, if Islam won’t fight him straight away, has to fight one more. I’m sure he’d have no problem getting a win. The man’s incredible ok, I’m sure he could get a win at 155lbs and then fight for the belt. Prove his legitimacy. Then in the meantime, you have Paddy Pimblett fight somebody else, okay, maybe Charles Oliveira, which by the way is not an easy matchup.”

He proceeded to talk about Oliveira’s prowess and said, “Charles Oliveira, as we know, is incredible, former champ defended the belt a bit. Most Submissions, most bonuses, one of the most exciting fights in all sports, maybe you have Paddy fight him. Maybe he fights Justin Gaethje, maybe Islam Makhachev fights Justin Gaethje.”

Meanwhile, Team Khabib’s coach, Javier Mendez, pointed out that Pimblett does deserve a title shot. He said, “If they give him the next title shot, he deserves it,” while speaking on the Javier & Mo Show. But on the other hand, we cannot ignore the simmering rivalry that the Georgian Spaniard and the Brit seem to have. While calling out his next opponents after winning at UFC 314, Pimblett left out Topuria’s name.

From fear? Not at all. He ‘forgot’ about him. He even said during the post-fight presser that he’d beat Topuria with similar tactics that he used for Chandler. Bisping, however, thinks the Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev fight is the one to make; it’s a big money fight, even though Topuria vs Pimblett is also a pretty big fight, and the latter wants to settle this beef.

Paddy Pimblett speaks up on settling the hot waters with Topuria

Before he went into the cage to destroy Chandler and make the latter bleed, he reflected on his possible matchup against Topuria. The duo had a feud at UFC 282 pre-fight presser, and then Pimblett talked about settling this feud at a pre-UFC 314 interview with JNMEDIA’s Jamal Niaz.

“I’m sick of talking about Topuria, he’s an absolute helmet. He wouldn’t be where he is in the UFC without jumping on the back of my name,” he said. “So yes, I do want to settle that beef one day, but we’ll see if he steps up.”

Meanwhile, Dana White and Co. still don’t have an opponent for Topuria. “We’re working on it. We got a lot of s–t to do. Yes, you know, obviously, he is one of the biggest stars in the company. If we had something planned, we would have announced it already,” the UFC CEO said at UFC 314 post-fight presser. Conversely, Pimblett changed his stance about Topuria and called out every lightweight veteran in the top 10 except him at the UFC 314 post-fight interview. But with Topuria wanting Pimblett to fight as per his account to Joe Rogan, the already tangled LW division gets more complicated. What do you think UFC is going to do? Tell us in the comments below.