How many of these 3 fights in 2025 actually happen?

[laleggenda27]

1. Islam-Topuria: it will happen this year, assuming Belal runs through JDM as expected.
2. Jones-Aspinall: I'd be shocked if Jones took this fight.
3. DDP-Khamzat: depends on how serious DDP's injury is. If he's healthy, the fight will happen.

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

Islam Topuria.

 

[188912345]

Ilia does. Has the UFC suggested they're begging for it?

UFC is a fight promotion, and it's one of the 3 biggest fights they can make at the moment.
Big fight, big money.

If they didn't want it, they wouldn't have guaranteed Ilia that his first fight at LW will be for the title.

 

[HHJ]

I have a theory that UFC alrdy has the Jon fight finalized they are just keeping it under top secret to build anticipation

Disagree.

There is no need to build anticipation. Just announce it.

 

[Skarsgard]

UFC is a fight promotion, and it's one of the 3 biggest fights they can make at the moment.
Big fight, big money.

If they didn't want it, they wouldn't have guaranteed Ilia that his first fight at LW will be for the title.

Do we have anything from them saying he was getting first crack? Only thing I've seen was Ilia saying "but I wanna."
If they make it, fine. Fights are better than no fights.
If they don't, there are more deserving contenders.
Don't see why it's one of the three biggest. It's not a champ vs champ fight. Ilia isn't an established contender at 155. Don't know that he's a big needle mover.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

I feel like everyone wants to see Jones/Aspinall, Khamzat/DDP, and Topuria/Islam. Yet almost no movement on any of them. How many do you think actually get put together this year?


UFC can put together every other fight under the sun except what fans really want. I think that the sport is turning into boxing, where we get all the matches except the main ones at the top everyone would've probably voted are the top fights they wanted to see this year. I really hope this doesn't continue to be a pattern for the future.

Islam/Toppy is the only one that has a chance. If DDP is injured then the Khamzat fight is off. I don't believe Jon wants the fight with Aspinall.

Answer: 1

 

[188912345]

Do we have anything from them saying he was getting first crack? Only thing I've seen was Ilia saying "but I wanna."
If they make it, fine. Fights are better than no fights.
If they don't, there are more deserving contenders.
Don't see why it's one of the three biggest. It's not a champ vs champ fight. Ilia isn't an established contender at 155. Don't know that he's a big needle mover.

Ilia said that the UFC promised him that his first fight at LW would be for a title and that they've always kept their promises to him.
What seems to delay the announcement is Islams unwillingness to commit to take the fight at this moment (keeping one eye on WW).

I think there's only one strong contender (Arman) but he seems to be on UFCs shit list at the moment. And he lost to Islam (I know, short notice, a very long time ago).

Charles has also lost to Islam and recently lost to Arman. Then beat Chandler, as did Paddy, who still needs another win.

Gaethje is coming off a win, but got KOd the previous fight and is 0-2 in title fights. He would be a massive underdog vs Islam.

Ilia is young, undefeated, very well rounded, KO-power, strong grappler. Very clearly a special talent.

He also KO'd Volk and Max back to back, two absolute legends. Volk and Max have proven themselves to be competitive with elite LWs.
He's also a very big star in Spain and in the European market. He has 7.2 million followers on Instagram and is on the cover of big magazines in Spain so he definitely has star power.

When looking at odds for potential opponents for Islam, Ilia is the smallest underdog, Arman second.

If Arman is out of the equation, there's really no other viable and exciting option.

 

[burningspear]

Islam must be moving up and taking on a WW contender, it would only be right.