3 Potential Fights Next for Ilia Topuria

On Saturday at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, Ilia Topuria shocked the world by becoming the first man ever to not only knock Max Holloway down, knock him out. The Spaniard put on a masterclass in boxing and bullied the BMF champion, Holloway, in a performance which saw him advance to a professional MMA record of 16-0, with his last two victories being arguably the most impressive back-to-back victories in UFC history over the two best featherweight fighters of all time, Holloway, and of course, Alexander Volkanovski who Topuria knocked out earlier this year to become champion.

Despite putting on such a great performance and securing himself a historic victory, there looks to be no time for ‘El Matador’ to truly savour the victory as the next challenger for his UFC featherweight title is already being talked about. The UFC’s 145-poujnd division is arguably the most stacked division currently in MMA and the tests will not get any easier for Topuria as there is a list of both experienced and young, hungry and up-and-coming fighters who will be looking to take the title away from him.

Today, GIVEMESPORT will go through some of the potential next match-ups for Topuria, following the first successful defence of his UFC featherweight title at UFC 308.

Alexander Volkanovski

Volkanovski lost the UFC featherweight title to Topuria earlier this year following an unbelievable four-year reign as champion

As of right now, the fighter who is most likely to challenge Ilia Topuria for his UFC featherweight title next is the man who Topuria brutally knocked out to become champion, arguably the greatest featherweight of all time, Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski.

Despite ‘El Matador having defeated the Australian pretty convincingly at UFC 298 earlier this year, there is a strong case for Volkanovski to receive an immediate rematch for the featherweight title, as is arguably the featherweight GOAT, with an incredible title run behind him. That alone deserves a rematch. This fight as of right now seems to be the direction in which the UFC is going in, as during Topuria’s post-fight interview at UFC 308, they had Volkanovski enter the cage to congratulate him and seemingly set up the rematch, with the UFC’s next visit to Sydney, Australia in February next year being a possible date and location for the fight to take place.

Not only did the UFC seemingly set up the fight on the official UFC 308 broadcast, but the rematch also looked to get the seal of approval from Dana White, as in his post-event media scrum, he said, “We’re not going to say no to Volkanovski,” adding: “Who wouldn’t want to see it again?”

Typically, when a champion in the UFC gets brutally knocked out cold and has their belt taken from them they do not get an immediate rematch. However, people do forget that in the first round of their fight at UFC 298, Volkanovski was having some very good success against Topuria and actually won the first round, which defeats the narrative from many fans that the Spaniard went out there and completely bullied ‘The Great’ and made it look easy, which is absolutely not the case and why so many fans want to see the rematch.

Diego Lopes

Lopes is currently on a five-fight win streak in the UFC featherweight division and is becoming a huge fan favourite for his fighting style

Despite the rematch against Alexander Volkanovski looking to be the current front-runner to be Ilia Topuria’s next title defence, the UFC could very easily change their mind and instead give the title shot to the young and hungry Brazilian, Diego Lopes, who is the featherweight division’s fastest rising star right now. Lopes only made his promotional debut for the UFC just over a year ago, but due to staying active and being willing to fight anyone anywhere, he has shot himself up to No.3 in the featherweight rankings.

Lopes’ impressive winning streak which he is currently on sees him hold impressive victories over the likes of former featherweight title challenger, Brian Ortega, Sodiq Yusuff, and of course, Dan Ige, who Lopes fought on just a few hours’ notice at UFC 303 in June following a literal last-minute withdrawal from Ortega. There was some talk several weeks ago in the MMA world that in the UFC’s return to Australia in February of next year, Lopes could find himself in a title fight, albeit for interim UFC gold against Australia’s own, Alexander Volkanovski in a fight which would of course definitively determine Topuria’s next challenger and this could still be the case, however, the UFC look to be leaning in the direction of an immediate undisputed title rematch for Volkanovski.

Conor McGregor

McGregor and Topuria have been going back and forth on social media and through interviews for many weeks now, and it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon

One more potential fight which could be on the table next for Ilia Topuria is a super-fight against MMA’s biggest star, Conor McGregor. This suggestion may seem bizarre to some as McGregor has not fought in almost three and a half years, however, with what has been going on recently between the two on social media with their constant trash talk and bickering, the UFC could strike while the iron is hot and make Topuria vs McGregor next at 155 pounds, which is a weight Topuria has actually fought at before despite being the featherweight champion.

Despite having no previous history of bad blood between them, Topuria and McGregor have been non-stop going at each other over the last few weeks, and it has led to both men firing brutal insults at one another, with Topuria branding the Irishman a “joke,” and McGregor calling Topuria “a fake Spaniard” and a “Georgian undercover.”

As is standard procedure nowadays for most big UFC events, ‘The Notorious’ reacted to Topuria’s huge UFC 308 victory on social media, posting on X a simple message of “call me,” regarding a potential future fight against ‘El Matador.’

All statistics and professional MMA records are correct as of 28.10.24