"If it were up to me, we'd have a welterweight bout, with Islam in the first round and Paddy Pimblett in the second."

The recent Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight world champion, Spanish-Georgian Ilia Topuria , spoke about the possibility of moving up to welterweight and facing renowned rivals such as Islam Makhachev or Paddy Pimblett, to whom he also left a message.

"If it were up to me, next Saturday we'd have a welterweight fight in Spain, with Islam in the first round and Paddy Pimblett in the second, but it doesn't depend solely on me," Ilia Topuria said, laughing, at a press conference where she presented the MUCHO drink with Hijos de Rivera.

"If I were offered the fight with Islam, I wouldn't mind waiting. But now I want to sit down, figure out what I want, see what the UFC's vision is , and together we can build something that works for both of us. With Islam, I prefer no weight," he commented.

However, he believes Briton Pimbett "would be next." "That's why I promoted him; it was smart, because he's one of the easiest. I would fight him; I wouldn't wait too long because if you go in with so many requirements, the fight might never happen. I offer flexibility, and he's in trouble because I'm flexible ," he said about his short- to medium-term future.

And he praised the possibility of defending his belt against Armenian Arman Tsarukyan, saying, "He's the easiest of them all, much easier than Paddy." "Imagine having the opportunity to fight and saying you're retiring because your back hurts, I can't imagine that. I would have come out without an arm, it wouldn't have mattered to me ," he commented on the fighter's withdrawal due to a back problem at UFC 311 when he was a contender for the lightweight title.

"Mentally, he's not where he needs to be. He doesn't know what to do to clean up his mess. Now he thinks that by talking, he'll get a chance , but the reality is, he'll be on ice for a little while," he joked.