Ilia Topuria caused many reactions with his comments on wanting to leave the UFC featherweight division behind for a move up to lightweight.
UFC contender Diego Lopes was one of the many who were caught off guard by the 145-pound champion’s bold remarks. Lopes, who’s knocking on the door of a title shot at featherweight, doesn’t care if Topuria stays or leaves the division. However, he does find Topuria’s potential move premature.
“From my point of view, I think he has work to do in the division,” Lopes told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “We have several contenders that have their sight on him, and I’m one of those. I would like a fight against him, and if he stays in the division, that’s a fight that I’ll look for. But if he is really leaving, he needs to make that decision, and let’s see what happens with the division.”
Given Topuria’s success in winning and defending the UFC featherweight title, plus the number of rising contenders in the weight class, Lopes admits he was surprised by Topuria’s recent comments.
Still, Lopes is still not sold that the move is 100 percent happening next. But if it does come to fruition, he’d like for the UFC to match him uop against former champion Alexander Volkanovski.
“I think those comments caught everyone by surprise since he had said he was going to defend his title against Volkanovski for his next fight,” Lopes explained.” But who knows, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the division, and we’re even asking the UFC what’s going to happen, and we haven’t gotten an answer, so maybe he’s losing his patience and that’s why he made that comments about wanting to move to 155 to see if something happens or UFC gives him an answer.
“If he truly is going to move up to 155, I’d like to fight against Volkanovski – whether it’s a title fight or not or an interim title. I’d want to fight him. If he’s going to be left without a fight, I’m here.”
