Coach: Ilia Topuria At Welterweight is an Easy Matchup for Islam Makhachev
Javier Mendez believes that Ilia Topuria facing Islam Makhachev at welterweight instead of lightweight plays into their hands.
As we know, Ilia Topuria is one of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts right now – and combat sports as a whole. He has already been able to achieve some incredible things in his career, which includes becoming a two-weight world champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Of course, he would’ve liked to have faced Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title instead of Charles Oliveira, but Islam opted to make the move up to welterweight on a hunt for his own second belt.
Ever since then, though, fans have been discussing a possible Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev fight at length. Some believe that Islam’s wrestling would simply be too much for Ilia, whereas others think ‘El Matador’ is just on a completely different level, with a lot of people comparing his rise to that of Conor McGregor when he first burst onto the scene.
Some believe that Ilia Topuria may even venture all the way up to welterweight to face Makhachev, so long as Islam can defeat Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 on Saturday night. In a recent interview, Javier Mendez suggested that this wouldn’t be a great idea for Ilia.
Javier Mendez’s view on Ilia Topuria heading to welterweight
“Ilia Topuria moving up to welterweight to fight Islam? I think that favors us even more so, because Ilia’s speed won’t be there when he puts on that extra weight. The power will, but the speed won’t, so let’s see.”
Nobody can predict the future, but what we do know is that Topuria vs Makhachev is one of the biggest fights that can be made in this generation alongside Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall. Ilia is insanely confident in his abilities but if he keeps moving division like this, some will wonder whether or not he should even be allowed to keep hold of the lightweight gold he’s just won.
Before this kind of talk can really get off the ground, though, we first need to see what Makhachev looks like against JDM at MSG.
