Beneil Dariush approves of Ilia Topuria getting an immediate title shot at lightweight.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) vacated his UFC featherweight belt after admitting that the weight cut was too strenuous on him. “El Matador” is eyeing a title fight against lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Despite only defending his title once with a knockout of Max Holloway at UFC 308, Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6 UFC) doesn’t see anyone else in the lightweight title picture as more worthy at the moment.
“You can’t really disagree with it,” Dariush told MMA Junkie. “Because he became champion, he defended his belt, and he’s just like, ‘Hey, I’m too big. I don’t want to make this weight cut anymore, so I want to fight ’55.’ I wouldn’t be against him fighting for 155, especially since the UFC said they’re not going to allow Arman (Tsarukyan) to have his fight for the title.
“So, if Arman’s not getting the title shot, Charles Oliveira – I understand he’s supposed to be the No. 1 contender, but I would say Ilia’s credentials are better at this moment. He’s riding quite the win streak so, I definitely wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, this is a mistake. They shouldn’t have this fight.'”
Dariush can see where Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) is coming from when he says he doesn’t want to fight another featherweight in Topuria, but says this time it’s a little different.
“I think the situation is this, I don’t think Makhachev really wants to fight another ’45’er,” Dariush continued. “He fought (Alexander) Volkanovski because he wanted to be pound-for-pound champion because at that time, Volkanovski was. He beat Volkanovski so he’s kind of over that I would say.
“He doesn’t really want to fight another 145’er. But, the difference now is Ilia is moving up and he’s an actual ’55’er. He’s not going back down to 145. All it requires is for Makhachev to agree. If Makhachev agrees to fight him, I think the fight happens
