Topuria seeks to double his legend

The agonizing wait is over. Ilia "El Matador" Topuria aims to become a legend with an assault on a second world title within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization in the world. The Georgian-Spaniard will fight for the vacant UFC lightweight (70.3 kilos) title, as this newspaper exclusively reported several weeks ago, against Brazilian Charles Oliveira. This was announced yesterday by the company's president and CEO, Dana White, who specified that the fight will be the main event of UFC 317 , an event scheduled for June 28 as part of International Fight Week in Las Vegas, or, in other words, the biggest week in sports.

This announcement is undoubtedly a real bombshell, as it means that the division's champion and world number one pound-for-pound (regardless of weight class), Dagestani Islam Makhachev, has had to jump through hoops and give up his belt in order to conquer the next higher weight class, welterweight (77.1 kilos). The Russian has lost the power struggle against the UFC, having recently stated that he "would not" vacate his title. Finally, he had to do so and will fight, on a date yet to be determined, against Australian Jack Della Maddalena, who is currently the welterweight champion. "Makhachev will be moving up to the welterweight division. Ilia Topuria will fight Charles Oliveira for the vacant UFC lightweight belt," confirmed Dana White.

Thus, as ABC MMA reported, the company's promise to Topuria has been fulfilled, which indicated that he would fight for the "undisputed or vacant" (not interim, which is only used when a champion is injured) lightweight title at International Fight Week, following the sacrifice he made by vacating his featherweight title. However, the possible confrontation with Makhachev, which would have been one of the biggest fights in history, has slipped away, at least for now.

Whatever the outcome, the Spanish-Georgian will thus be able to pursue a second belt in the world's largest mixed martial arts league, which will mark another historic milestone for his career and for the sport in our country. Since Topuria emerged as the athlete of the moment last year with his world title win, the sport has steadily gained followers, thanks in large part to the Spanish-Georgian athlete's ability to convey positive values ​​and ideas, which has become a mass phenomenon.

The reality is that, as we reported on these pages, all eyes of mixed martial arts fans were focused during the early hours of last Sunday in Montreal, Canada, where UFC 315 was taking place. More specifically, on the main event, where Belal Muhammad put his UFC welterweight championship title on the line for the first time against Jack Della Maddalena.

If Belal won, the most anticipated fight, the confrontation between Islam Makhachev (lightweight champion) and Ilia Topuria (former featherweight champion) would become a reality. Makhachev is a personal friend of Belal's and they share a manager, so they would never fight each other, and he would have had to keep his title and defend it against Topuria. Otherwise, he would have walked away. And this is what happened .

The Australian defeated the Palestinian-American by unanimous decision after a hard-fought fight, in which Belal tried to engage in striking, but it backfired. Della Maddallena was thus crowned world welterweight champion. Makhachev, the lightweight champion, had already requested a move up to welterweight, but having Belal there prevented that from happening , so he decided to wait for this fight before agreeing to continue defending his lightweight title.

"This Saturday's main event will determine my next step. But regardless of the outcome of that fight, I'm not giving up my lightweight title! We could be facing a real contender!" Makhachev said last Saturday. But nothing could be further from the truth. The UFC has pulled out all the stops, and despite the Russian champion's unwillingness to vacate his title, they forced him to do so. Now, Ilia Topuria and former lightweight champion, Brazilian Charles Oliveira, will fight for it.

Without a doubt, this is a new historic challenge for Topuria, who starts as the favorite and, if he wins, will allow him to become a legend.