Ilia Topuria changes tune, pitches Diego Lopes as possible next challenger

[Hdfi]

bring

 

[Khaosan]

Diego via flying triangle.

 

[Portland8242]

It's just too soon for the Islam fight IMO

It's more beneifical to build Topuria up at 145 more, he's still very young and obviously improving too. Lopes and Evloev are no doubt dangerous fights but I'm still picking Illia to easily win both those fights, his skillset is exceptional at 145.

 

[outbreak92]

I

Lopes won that fight and I'll die on this hill

Lopes won that fight and I'll die on this hill

It was close but movsar had more dominant positions

 

[Marko Polo]

Yea we get it, you dislike that Eloev won’t fight into your strengths and that might cause you to lose. Understandable.

It’s the trade off they make when they train for substance over style.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Topuria is going to exploit Lopes' sus cardio so badly by just pressuring him on the feet

 

[Dorkman]

Would be a great fight to be making.

 

[BangBang]

Good fight, like it.

 

[AbominableJoman]

Goaturia

 

[r-harper-1]

Movsar all day, Lopes can be next in line after Movsar

No thanks ….Movsar should finish a fight

 

[r-harper-1]

In a perfect world it would be Ilia vs Evloev & Volk vs Lopes. Both on the Miami card, both 5 rounds.

Perfect world doesn’t include boring Evloev …..Lopes is a much better fight

 

[r-harper-1]

You weirdos love this boring ass grapplers …bunch of TRUE MMA fans on here , not a single MMA hipster amongst ya

 

[Safton]

Evloev first. He has a fairly recent head-to-head win over Lopes and it's not like he hasn't gotten other good wins since then. Finishes should be, at best, a tertiary criteria when discussing the next title contender.

I would understand if Evloev beat Lopes years ago while Lopes had beaten all these dudes since then, but that's not the case. Both have gone on to win multiple bouts against credible, ranked opposition. I find Lopes to be the more thrilling fighter on a personal basis, but I can still objectively acknowledge that Evloev being on a longer streak inside the promotion and holding a win over him in this case should get him the shot.

 

[KO Shotz]

Thank God.

There's still work to be done at 145 for Ilia, even tho a matchup against Islam is very intriguing. Imo, Ilia still has to get thru Lopes & Evloev before talks of him clearing out the division.

 

[Luffy]

It's good he is actuallly being forced into making open ducking statements now though.

UFC has done a good job burying Evloev on the prelims and pretending he doesn't exist but the Streisand Effect comes into play once you start acknowledging him openly in order to justify ducking him.

The more you protest that he doesn't deserve a shot, the more people start to see that he does.

Well, Topuria said the same thing about Max, that he didn't feel like giving him a title shot, that Max didn't deserve it, etc... and ppl were like "Topuria is thinking I'm fucked!!" when they saw Topuria's reaction to Max KO'ing Justin Gaethje... Yet Topuria was the first one to ever KO Max... I don't doubt him at all, he may have his preferences to fight, but his apparent ducking statements may just be, as you say, a way to make the other opponent grow so he can "shut ppl up" when they face each other... Like, they know that sometimes the "pretend to duck" can have the opposite effect so the pretend duck can be sometimes a play to make the fight bigger....

Still tho, what happened to the Topuria vs Islam possible fight at lightweight? Islam Makhachev said he'd defend it vs Topuria if the UFC wanted it, that he'd fight anyone... And Topuria had said before many times he wanted Islam Makhachev and that he would beat Makhachev... I don't think Topuria would have stepped down, like, at all, if he were offered the fight... I think the more likely scenario is that both fighters were ok with the fight but the UFC didn't want it? Dunno...