Rumored Ilia Vacating the LW Strap?

[PeterGriffin]

Chasing bigger challenges and bigger guys to fight and knocking out everyone he faces is not entitled. Just admit you are hater

I want to see the lightweight title be defended, and Ilia is making it painfully clear HE DOES NOT WANT TO DO THAT. Has nothing to do with hate. Has EVERYTHING to do with the sport and division evolving. I am watching for the sport. You are watching for the drama I guess.

No fighter should be able to hold a division or belt hostage. Period. Stop glossing over the fact that Ilia chasing Islam to WW creates that LW logjam. Ilia is doing and saying whatever is necessary to maintain his brand... makes sense. But Ilia thinking his brand is bigger than the UFC's will be his own undoing.

And if Topuria's "personal life" is getting too tough at the moment... life sucks, get a helmet. GIve up your belt and deal with your shit. A belt will be somewhere when he gets all buttoned-up and he can chase glory again.

 

[KO Shotz]

Paddy gets butchered whether it's Illia or Arman. He ain't on their level.

this

 

[Black0ut]

Ughhh saw this being reported by another source aswell…… Illa vacating, Paddy vs Arman for vacant title.

Not defending the LW belt would be pretty lame by Illa, hope it isn’t true.

 

[andgonsil]

Toppy doing Goat things

 

[The_Renaissance]

If this is coz Topuria is going to WW I'll be fuming, fucking stick around a division and lay a bit of a legacy there first.

 

[jeff7b9]

 

[burningspear]

He thinks at scale, why fight Islam's defeated opponents when you can fight the man himself.

 

[FrappeDuRocma]

He thinks at scale, why fight Islam's defeated opponents when you can fight the man himself.

You are right, he should fight Adriano Martins. Think big !

 

[Koya]

Steve Jeffs a close friend of Paddy says that Paddy is fighting for the title next, won’t be against Ilia and that the match between Paddy and ??? Arman ??? Should be verbally agreed on by Thursday/Friday

Ilia is dealing with personal issues apparently

He has the Conor syndrome of not being able to defend the LW belt

 

[bjjwar]

Risky move by Ilia. He's too small for WW.

Looking at the Herbert and Oliveira fights at LW, he’s even crazily undersized for a LW…

 

[DanaWhitesButler]

I want to see the lightweight title be defended, and Ilia is making it painfully clear HE DOES NOT WANT TO DO THAT. Has nothing to do with hate. Has EVERYTHING to do with the sport and division evolving. I am watching for the sport. You are watching for the drama I guess.

No fighter should be able to hold a division or belt hostage. Period. Stop glossing over the fact that Ilia chasing Islam to WW creates that LW logjam. Ilia is doing and saying whatever is necessary to maintain his brand... makes sense. But Ilia thinking his brand is bigger than the UFC's will be his own undoing.

And if Topuria's "personal life" is getting too tough at the moment... life sucks, get a helmet. GIve up your belt and deal with your shit. A belt will be somewhere when he gets all buttoned-up and he can chase glory again.

Belts don't mean shit. The UFC invented them to get more people hyped for "title fights" and thus buy more tickets. I'm here to watch good fights, and if one of our generational talents in ilia wants to move up and challenge himself against bigger fighters, I'm all for it. Fuck belts. They're not important. People like you would be the biggest marks in professional wrestling, obsessing over bullshit belts, angles and story lines. None of that shit matters, and they're not more important than good fights and seeing our one of our generation's best talents test himself.

 

[bjjwar]

He has the Conor syndrome of not being able to defend the LW belt

The difference is he actually defended his belt and the guy everyone wanted to see a superfight with, ran to the uppest divison. So now he has to vacate again to fight that coward. Conor literally ran from Khabib for 2 yrs and got stripped for inactivity until he faced him and got destroyed.

Ilia is running TOWARDS the challenging matchup, there’s a big difference.

 

[Koya]

The difference is he actually defended his belt and the guy everyone wanted to see a superfight with, ran to the uppest divison. So now he has to vacate again to fight that coward. Conor literally ran from Khabib for 2 yrs and got stripped for inactivity until he faced him and got destroyed.

Ilia is running TOWARDS the challenging matchup, there’s a big difference.

You can't "run to the uppest division" as it's the harder thing to do.

If Islam fought Ilia at LW you'd be complaining that "he only depends against FWs"

Makhachev can't win with you guys, if he fights Shavkat next you'll say he's ducking Topuria somehow

 

[jeff7b9]

not sure what Dana's obsession with Paddy is

Whatever do you mean?

How could you deny Paddy a title on a run like this?

 

[Cemalex88]

Ilia's personel issues should be ducking from Arman

 

[jsbx45]

Paddy gets butchered whether it's Illia or Arman. He ain't on their level.

I think this is correct.

 

[YourBoss]

If he goes after Islam you cannot hate that. Fighting against a monster with insane grappling and a massive size advantage in a weightclass he will be way smaller than all opponents. thats ballsy. sucks for lightweight, but who cares. pimblett vs arman is a nice fight too.

 

[wrb]

If he goes after Islam you cannot hate that. Fighting against a monster with insane grappling and a massive size advantage in a weightclass he will be way smaller than all opponents. thats ballsy. sucks for lightweight, but who cares. pimblett vs arman is a nice fight too.

That's for sure not happening now, nobody wants to see it and he has already fucked up too many divisions. I am very surprised how quickly he fucked his brand, unreal shit.

edit: people are going to be furious if he goes for Islam next and vacates or even worse hold on to the LW belt without defending. He is really fucking up here, strange stuff

 

[188912345]

You can't "run to the uppest division" as it's the harder thing to do.

If Islam fought Ilia at LW you'd be complaining that "he only depends against FWs"

Makhachev can't win with you guys, if he fights Shavkat next you'll say he's ducking Topuria somehow

Not at all.
Ilia is now a LW, after starching the FW-goats back to back.

We just want to see the best and most dangerous fights for champions.
Especially for dominant champions.

At LW, unfortunately we never got to see Islam vs Arman and Ilia.
(*I know, Arman pulled out).

Now at WW, it seems like they are pushing for an Usman-fight, which is ridiculous, considering there are 4 guys with a better claim for the shot.

Unearned legacy title fights are pointless and it's ruining the sport.

Keep those fights out of the title picture.

I have a hard time seeing how anyone can support it, except those who are financially motivated by it (Ali, etc).

 

[Rio Ferdinand]

I actually believe the rumours.

I think the man lost his family recently, because his wife left him. Not sure about the kids. Wouldn't wish that on anyone.

He probably is in no mental shape to fight anyone, let alone Islam Makhachev.