“Topuria will be moving up to 155 pounds and will be vacating the featherweight title,” Dana White announced earlier this week. But wait a minute! Wasn’t he interested in the dual-champ status? If that was the case, vacating the title was completely counter-productive. However, it seems White has come up with a new set of instructions for his fighters because many of the champions are interested in dominating two divisions simultaneously.

Think about Topuria, Islam Makhachev, Belal Muhammad, and Alex Pereira; All of them aspire to establish their looming presence in two divisions—Something that UFC’s CEO isn’t happy about. So while having a conversation with ESPN, the featherweight title contender, Diego Lopes, highlighted that the UFC head honcho has a different set of rules for the champions who want to fight in the higher division. He stated:

“They were very clear to us that they said that they are no longer giving [a] chance to jump from one weight class to another,” said Lopes. “If you want to move up, you have to vacate your title. This is what UFC has said to all champions who are planning to move up a weight class.

“They will no longer have the status of double champion simultaneously. If [Topuria] is going to be a double champion, it will be nothing more than a champion of two categories. But I think, you know, in the end, it is up to each individual to decide if [Topuria] feels he has nothing else left in the division. Well, he should move forward with his career.”

Here’s the thing: When champions fight in a heavier weight class, it leaves their own weight class in limbo. For instance, remember how Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev fought twice in 2023? Volk was really looking forward to the double-champ status by defeating the Dagestani, but things didn’t turn out in his favor. At the same time, the featherweight and lightweight divisions were left stagnant.

While Volkanovski did defend his featherweight title against Yair Rodriguez that year, the lightweight looked like it was on pause until June 2024, when Dustin Poirier got the opportunity to fight for the title.

Lopes further stated, “I know in the division, we have very good fighters that could give very good fights against him. We can put him in serious trouble or even defeat him. But if he feels that because he defeated Max and Volk, who are legends in the division, his work here is already done, well, it’s fine. He has the right to believe so and go ahead.”

Islam Makhachev might find himself at a disadvantage now, considering that the lightweight champion’s ultimate goal is to secure a second title before ending his career. The Dagestani has been calling for a dual-weight championship fight, but Dana White has yet to yield to his demands—and a new rule might have ended Makhachev’s aspirations altogether and the fans are not having it.

UFC fighters who became simultaneous two-division champions:

Calls for Islam Makhachev dual-weight fight intensity as Dana White’s new rule is bashed!

While Makhachev defended his title four times (twice against Alexander Volkanovski, then Poirier and Renato Carneiro), Ilia Topuria has defended the featherweight title just once. He also made history with the most title defenses in the lightweight division and this made several fans believe that the Dagestan fighter should get the chance to prove himself in a new division. A fan wrote:

• “Fighters like makhachev with 4 defenses should be given opportunity like this, not ilia with just one title defense.”

Lately, the champ-champ conversations have caught immense interest from various UFC champions and fans alike. In fact, since Belal Muhammad, who is the welterweight champion and also Makhachev’s friend, the latter was even willing to move to the middleweight division to solidify his legacy.

Sounds like a difficult task, but his coach, Javier Mendez, surprisingly felt that Makhachev could absolutely pull it off. “So, yeah, 185 is not gonna be an issue for him. It’s a matter of whether he wants to,” he mentioned last year. However, in an interview earlier this year, Mendez confessed that his student would have to put on a lot of muscle to be able to perform well at 185 lbs.

Regardless, fans weren’t satisfied with the promotion’s new rule. One social media user wrote:

• “Unfortunate. They should be allowed at least one champ vs champ fight before vacating.”
• if you’re active and consistently defending i don’t see why not. if you’re one of those that fight once a year absolutely should vacate.”

But like always, there were arguments that also favored the rule against allowing champions to fight at a heavier weight class; Especially since such conversations have become a norm now as opposed to its rarity a few years ago.

• “So glad. Double champ asks was getting out of control and Dana knew it.”

Further, some fans came up with a solution to the champ-champ problem that the UFC is facing. How about only specific champions get the opportunity to seek such glory? The last one to do it was Henry Cejudo in 2019. So a fan shared:

• “Good. When someone really deserves a double champ shot, they shouldn’t need to ask for permission. They should objectively clear out their division until there is no challenge left.”

One can only wonder how Makhachev would have reacted to such a rule. Do you think Dana White will stop Makhachev from double glory with this rule? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.