Makhachev angrily lashes out at Topuria: "You're nobody in the lightweight division, just a loudmouth..."

Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev have publicly clashed on social media. With Belal Muhammad's loss to Jack Della Maddalena, the Russian has found a way to move up to welterweight (170 pounds or 77.1 kilos), avoiding the fight with Topuria . This hasn't sat well with the Spanish-Georgian, who hasn't hesitated to provoke. At the WOW 19 press conference held in Alicante, El Matador attacked with everything he's got. "He's the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen. He told me he didn't want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy, and now he's the little guy, looking for the same opportunity I was looking for. He criticized my decision when he's doing the same thing. I've never seen more hypocrisy in his life, and he'll be advised to do so..." Topuria replied to ABC MMA's question.

"I should be thanking Ali Abdelaziz for not beating his star, and the fact that he has any value today is thanks to me, because they kicked him out the back door. Everyone knows it was the fight everyone wanted to see, I would have prepared for it, and they got away ," he added. The Spanish-Georgian's statements quickly became abuzz on social media, so Makhachev responded in no time.

"The difference between you and me is that I dominated my division and moved on to the next one, but you walked away from two contenders who had 5-9 consecutive wins in the featherweight division," he noted in X. This reason is one of the main arguments that the Russian team uses to justify the change of division. However, that doesn't mean that they haven't delayed all negotiations for UFC 317 (where, finally, Topuria will face Oliveira ).

Makhachev also reiterated that the former featherweight (145 pounds or 65.8 kilos) champion needs to prove himself at lightweight (155 pounds or 70.3 kilos). "You're a nobody in the lightweight division, just a loudmouth from Spain with a good haircut. Get a win and we can talk, kiddo," he concluded his post. Although every fan in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) wants to see the fight between the two, it seems to be getting further away.

Even Ilia Topuria himself sees the possibility of it happening as remote. "If someone runs away, you don't have to bully them. You have to let them escape ," El Matador explained at the press conference. However, it's not impossible yet. The tension between the two is noticeable, so if at some point Makhachev decides to step down again (perhaps following a loss to Della Maddalena), we could see said tournament, motivated by this exchange of statements and those to come.