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Ilia Topuria of the UFC

UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria has named his ideal timeline for a superfight against UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Topuria returns to the Octagon at UFC Freedom 250 in June, when he looks to unify his belt against interim UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje in the main event of the UFC White House card. As for Makhachev, he is currently awaiting his next foe, with Carlos Prates potentially the next in line for a title shot following a vicious TKO win over former champ Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Perth last weekend.

For Topuria, however, he doesn’t expect to stay at lightweight for long, even if he successfully unifies the belts with Gaethje. He is chasing big fights, and there is no bigger fight right now in the UFC than a matchup between Topuria and Makhachev, the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today.

Ilia Topuria Reveals Timeline for Islam Makhachev Superfight

Speaking to ESPN in an interview this week, Topuria was asked when he wants a fight with Makhachev to take place. According to the lightweight champion, there is no time to wait. As long as he beats Gaethje and all goes according to plan at UFC Freedom 250, Topuria wants his next fight to be at the end of the year against Makhachev in a matchup that will truly test his skills.

“If it would be my choice, I would fight him on this card or by the end of the year. I’m excited, too. I’m a fighter. This is what I do every day of my life, so why not test my skills against someone like him? He is a very skillful fighter, I respect him as a fighter, he dominated the whole division for I don’t know how many years,” Topuria said (h/t MMAFighting.com).

“He fought for the title I don’t know how many times, so what better than to test yourself against someone like him and at the same time everyone’s going to be freaking out. Everyone’s going to be very excited about the fight and I love that, I love people to be excited to go to an event. We’ll see, hopefully it’s going to happen.”

Topuria a Big Favorite Against Justin Gaethje

Although Gaethje is the interim lightweight champion and deserves the respect that comes along with that, very few people are giving him much of a chance here to beat Topuria.

According to the latest betting odds, Topuria is a massive -800 betting favorite to win this fight and unify the lightweight belts, with Gaethje a +550 underdog. While Gaethje is a great fighter in his own right, and one who undoubtedly will be in the UFC Hall of Fame one day, this matchup heavily favors Topuria stylistically, so it makes sense that he is the clear favorite to win it.

Should Topuria get the job done as expected, and should Makhachev defeat Prates or Ian Machado Garry in his next fight, then perhaps the UFC can get this amazing superfight between Topuria and Makhachev booked for the end of the year.