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22 hours ago
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Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria are certainly one of the two main faces of the UFC scene, and their performances and appearances always attract attention. Although there have been rumors these days about their future and plans, it seems that we are close to a big fight that we have been waiting for for a long time.
Many MMA fans were hoping to see a superfight between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, but earlier this week the UFC announced that Topuria will fight Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight championship belt - the belt Makhachev vacated to move up to challenge welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena.
Although Islam and Topuria will not meet in the cage anytime soon, their fights on social networks are not abating. Shortly after the aforementioned UFC announcement, "El Matador" stated that "it's a shame that Makhachev ran away".
The Dagestani then retaliated by presenting some facts. Namely, before moving to welterweight, Makhachev readily accepted every challenge in the lightweight category and thus "cleaned up" the division, and he pointed out that Topuria left the featherweight category before facing all the top challengers. He was referring specifically to Movsar Evloev and Diego Lopes.
Makhachev's X post
“The difference between you and me is that I cleaned up the top of my division and moved up to the next one, while you ran away from two challengers who had five to nine consecutive featherweight wins. You’re nobody in the lightweight division – just a big mouth from Spain with a nice haircut. Get at least one win (in lightweight) and we can talk, boy,” wrote Islam on X.
Topuria quickly responded, once again accusing Makhachev of running away from fighting him. He also added a provocation in Russian, calling him a “little boy”:
“The difference between you and me is that I’m a man, and you’re a coward. I talk and fight. You just talk and hide. You run away, leaving no trace. Ты маленький пацан (You’re a little boy),” wrote Topuria.
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