Team Ilia Topuria Gives Green Light to Huge Fight for Dustin Poirier’s ‘Last Dance’ in UFC on One Condition

Even before he bulldozered his way through Max Holloway earlier this year, UFC featherweight king Ilia Topuria had one thing in mind. He wanted to move up and fight Islam Makhachev for the Dagestani’s lightweight title. No one, of course, took him very seriously since there were still contenders to take care of at 145lbs, and Dana White is famously not very enthusiastic about his fighters moving up without clearing the division.

So imagine everyone’s surprise when seemingly out of nowhere, ‘El Matador’ announced that he is indeed jumping to 155lbs. Not just for a title showdown against Makhachev but as a permanent move! And the opponent that Topuria wants is Charles Oliveira, who is seemingly next in line for a title shot. However, that would be a difficult get. After all, ‘Do Bronx’ is unlikely to agree to fight Topuria and risk losing his position in the title. This is why many are asking the question- if not Oliveira, then who? Well, Topuria’s coach, Jorge Climent had a surprising answer.

“I know Dustin Poirier is looking for his final fight, would you have any interest in Dustin Poirier?” the coach was asked in an interview with ‘Submission Radio’. To which he agreed. But not just to fighting Dustin Poirier specifically, but also seemingly any other top-ranked lightweight that the UFC offers Topuria for a May clash.

“Yeah, I see yesterday… It’s another big match for Ilia Topuria. I don’t know, I think the best opportunity is to fight with the number one top-ranking [guy]. But if there is not this option [fight with Charles Oliveira], why not? I think Ilia is prepared to fight with everybody. We want to fight in May and what destiny say, we accept it, because we can go with everybody,” the coach, whose first language isn’t English, said.

Of course, Poirier is known for his excellent striking, but the coach feels that ‘El Matador’ edges him on the feet along with obviously having a better ground game than the pure-striker ‘Diamond’. He [Poirier] has very good skill in striking, he’s a tough guy. But I think Ilia is having a better striking, I think he has better wrestling,” he added. But there is another question almost everyone is wondering at the moment.

Why does Ilia Topuria want to move up to lightweight?

Ilia Topuria’s coach has revealed that the main reason ‘El Matador’ wants to bid adieu to featherweight is because he is tired of killing himself to make the 145-pound limit. “Here’s the real thing, I think he hates cutting weight, you know. He does it a lot of times and he  [finds it] very hard every time we do it,” Climent revealed.

According to the coach, Topuria walks around at a whopping 187 pounds when not fighting, which means he has to cut over forty pounds to make 145! Weight cutting, of course, is an extremely painful process where fighters mostly dehydrate themselves to cut enough weight.

Sean O’Malley once described cutting weight as “feeling like you’re dying.” And Topuria quite understandably doesn’t much relish ‘dying’ every time he has to fight. This would be a big loss for the 145-pound division. After all, the titans of the division- Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski– are seemingly past their prime.

While there are a lot of exciting young prospects such as Diego Lopes and Movsar Evloev on the rise, Topuria is by far the most famous featherweight in the entire sport of MMA. This is why it would be interesting to hear what Dana White thinks about this whole affair. What do you think about Ilia Topuria’s coach’s revelations about ‘El Matador’s plans?