Islam Makhachev’s manager says next UFC title defense ‘done deal’ for the summer, Ilia Topuria fight never close to happening

A potential superfight between welterweight champion Islam Makchachev and lightweight champion Ilia Topuria was never actually close to coming to fruition for the White House, according to Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz.

The agent told TMZ that the promotion reached out to him asking about the possibility, but then changed plans before he was able to pass the offer along to the welterweight champion. In the end, Topuria will unify the lightweight belts on the June 14 card against interim titleholder Justin Gaethje, another fighter managed by Abdelaziz.

“I got called about Ilia to fight Islam,” Abdelaziz said. “It was middle of the day, Islam was sleeping, and I was excited about it. And after that, I got called back and said, ‘Never mind, the fight is not gonna happen.’ Before even I talked with Islam.”

Topuria’s manager Malki Kawa recently revealed they did not like the money that was offered by the UFC to make the champion vs. champion showdown, and Abdelaziz poked at them by calling it was a tactic to avoid the fight.

“And what I know is so many ways to turn down a fight,” Abdelaziz said. “I can say, ‘I’m gonna fight Francis Ngannou, give me $50 million,’ right? I don’t blame anyone for trying to make the most money they can because I believe Ilia and Islam is the biggest fight the UFC can make. I think this fight should happen this year. But in a way, does Ilia really want it? Because if he wanted, two things gonna happen. He has to vacate his lightweight title — I don’t think he wanted to do that, and I don’t blame him too because he just won it, right? But everybody else did and he’s nothing special. He’s just like anybody else.

“And he wants to be paid a lot of money. I can’t knock him down for this lot of money. But also, I can say certain kind of numbers to turn the UFC off. [Can] the UFC afford, can they pay in this number? Of course, they have a lot of money. They can pay any numbers they want. If they really want the fight, a big enough important for them, right? But in reality, I didn’t even get to Islam.”

Still according to Abdelaziz, there was an option on the table to strip Topuria of the belt and book Gaethje vs. Arman Tsarukyan for the undisputed championship on the White House event had Topuria declined the match.

“He was going to fight Arman Tsarukyan for the undisputed time,” Abdelaziz said. “This is what I was being told by the UFC. I don’t know the numbers, but also I do not blame Ilia and his team to try to make the most money they can. I get it. I understand. But this is honestly the truth. That’s what happened.”

Makhachev’s manager said the UFC went a different direction following that brief conversation, planning a welterweight title defense for mid-2026.

“And after that, Islam got offered a different fight, at welterweight, to be the main event. And Islam said, ‘Hey, let’s do this in July,’” Abdelaziz said. “He has some stuff going on, Dana [White] speak about it. But I can tell you this. If this fight was offered in June, and Islam even have on one leg, he would have [done] the fight. But in a way Islam already has a fight in the summer, we have a welterweight No. 1 contender match against someone. It’s a done deal already, and the UFC will announce it probably soon.”

It’s unclear who will be the first to challenge Makhachev for the 170-pound title. Jack Della Maddalena is the current No. 1 ranked fighter on the official UFC list, but he just lost the belt to Makhachev and is slated to face Carlos Prates on May 2 in Perth, Australia. The most likely options are Ian Machado Garry or Michael Morales, with former champion Kamaru Usman an underdog for the title shot.