Featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has been seeking an opportunity to move up the division and face Islam Makhachev. Fortunately, he is not the only one interested in seeing this matchup, as commentator Joe Rogan has also expressed interest in supporting this bout.
During his podcast, Joe Rogan discussed the bouts he would like to see in 2025 and suggested Topuria vs Makhachev.
“As crazy as it sounds, I hope Ilia goes up to [155 pounds]. I really do,” Rogan said. “[Alexander] Volkanovski-Diego Lopes [at] 145, Ilia goes up to 55. I don’t care if he only defended the title one time or didn’t. Who cares. Let’s go. Let’s f*cking go.
“It’d be nice [to see him fight some of the other contenders at featherweight], but also, who cares? Let’s go. Let’s f*cking go.”
The featherweight champ hasn’t been in the cage since defeating Max Holloway, who had never been beaten by strikes. Prior to this, Topuria won his title after defeating Alexandre Volkanavoski with a first-round knockout. Although many have clamored for a rematch with Volk, Rogan believes a fighter with Makhachev will be more interesting to watch.
“If you want to make the big fight for July, is it the Volkanovski rematch? I don’t know,” Rogan said. “Volkanovski, people probably want to see him win one.
“He gets beaten by Islam in the first fight. He gets KO’d by Islam in the second fight … and then he gets KO’d by Ilia. So two KO losses in a row, one decision, even though he’s a legend, you kind of want to see him beat a contender, maybe.”
“I wouldn’t hate a rematch,” Rogain said about Topuria vs. Volkanovski 2. “It’s one of those ones where I hope Alex is 100 percent, and I want to see it, but he shouldn’t have fought him that quickly after getting KO’d by Islam. Three months, four months later, he took a shot.”
Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC), coming off a submission win over late-replacement Renato Moicano last month at UFC 311, has been unenthusiastic about the idea of a fight with Topuria. The fighter is yet to have a next challenger as top contender Arman Tsarukyan has been out of it since withdrawing from UFC 311 on short notice.
