Newly-crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has yet to make a single title defense at 145 pounds, but that hasn’t stopped “El Matador” from dictating terms as it pertains to champions from other weight classes, including current 135-pound titleholder Sean O’Malley.
“Suga” has been teasing a “holy s—t” fight against Topuria for later this year.
“He’s fighting Merab (Dvalishvili) and I truly believe Merab is going to whoop his ass,” Topuria told The MMA Hour. “If he doesn’t, I will be waiting for him. Then he really deserves the shot. If he dominates his weight class, you have to give him the chance to move up to the next weight division. But right now, it doesn’t make any sense because he has a guy who is a No. 1 contender who really deserves the shot, Merab. And I truly believe that [Merab]’s going to beat him.”
Topuria has his own dragon to slay.
O’Malley, fresh off his dominant performance over longtime bantamweight rival Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in Miami, has (finally) agreed to fight Dvalishvili for his next 135-pound title defense; however, the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
“He told me, ‘I’m going to defend my belt. You do your things, and we’re going to build the biggest fight in UFC history.’ This is what’s going to happen,” Topuria said about his recent encounter with O’Malley. “If he defends the belt, that’s going to be the biggest fight in UFC history. And if we make it in [Madrid’s Santiago] Bernabeu [Stadium], even bigger.”
O’Malley is currently the betting underdog against Dvalishvili, as well as Topuria.