Ilia Topuria has opened up about the challenges he faced cutting down to 145 pounds.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) recently vacated his UFC featherweight title and is now scheduled to face Charles Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) for the vacant lightweight championship at UFC 317 on June 28. “El Matador” had an impressive run at featherweight, which culminated in a knockout win over then-champion Alexander Volkanovski in February of last year, followed by a dominant finish of former titleholder Max Holloway in his first title defense in October.
After making history by stopping two of the division’s all-time greats, Topuria chose to move up in weight due to the toll of cutting to 145 pounds—an issue he discussed in detail during a recent interview with ESPN Deportes.
“When you’re cutting weight and you can’t eat or drink water, you don’t care about any material things,” Topuria said (Spanish translation via Championship Rounds). “They can give you bags of money, they can give you all the cars you want, you don’t care at all. If they give you this little glass of water and say, ‘You can drink this and it won’t increase your weight,’ I’ll give you whatever it takes in that moment. I’m so low. I feel terrible. It’s like sitting naked in the middle of the street. I feel terrible. So I didn’t want to suffer anymore. I didn’t want to go through that.
“I’d already done it throughout my career. I’d already achieved my dream, which was to become a world champion. I had to close that chapter because I didn’t want to suffer anymore. Because honestly, it’s like living in the desert and I wanted to live on the beach.”
When Ilia Topuria announced his decision to move up to 155 pounds, he had one clear goal in mind—defeating lightweight champion and pound-for-pound No. 1, Islam Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC). However, with Makhachev recently revealing plans to move up and challenge for the welterweight title, it appears Topuria may not get the chance to realize that dream.
“Why did I want to fight Islam?” Topuria said. “For one simple fact, and it’s the same with Volkanovski. If you beat someone and take the title from them at 145, it had to be Volk. It had to be Volk for me at that point because he had the most history in the division. He was the one who dominated everyone. He was the greatest.
“It’s the same for me with Islam. I wanted to fight him simply because he had dominated everyone. So, who’s beating everyone? Islam. Well, I want to fight him because then the prize is much bigger.”
