Written by Islam Makhachev | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dana White has another superfight to chase.
Former featherweight king Ilia Topuria shook up the Pound-for-Pound rankings at UFC 317 when he clobbered future Hall of Famer Charles Oliveira to claim a vacant lightweight title. That belt was relinquished by Islam Makhachev, who is chasing gold at a higher weight class as Topuria just dead. Makhachev is expected to fight welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena before the end of 2025.
When Topuria first made overtures of a move to 155 pounds, speculation swirled around him possibly challenging Makhachev, but the two are currently on different paths. Should Makhachev also succeed at becoming a two-division champion, White sees a Makhachev vs. Topuria fight being right back on track.
“Islam moves up and obviously if Islam won the title, you immediately have a superfight with him and Ilia,” White said on the Full Send Podcast. “It’s one thing to sit around and talk about these fights before they happen or hypothetically speaking. I don’t like hypothetical. These are options that we have if things play out that way, but you never know what’s going to happen.
“I was absolutely confident that Jones vs. Aspinall was done and we were going to do it and here we are today. So you never know.”
White is still stinging from a potential Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall heavyweight championship unification bout falling through, with Jones having recently retired rather than face his fellow titleholder. The UFC CEO isn’t entirely moving on from the idea, especially with Jones already teasing a return to action with the possibility of fighting at a proposed UFC White House event in July 2026.
For now, it’s Topuria whose star is arguably shining brightest among the current crop of UFC standouts. His knockout of Oliveira ranks among the best of 2025 halfway through the year, and at just 28 years old he’s joined an exclusive list of champions to hold UFC titles in two divisions while also maintaining a perfect record at 17-0.
“El Matador” has left White reaching for superlatives to describe the Georgian-Spanish superstar.
“Incredible,” White said. “Absolutely unbelievable. … You don’t know until it plays out and then calling the round, calling how he’s going to do it, and doing it to the guys that he’s done it to is unbelievable. [Alexander Volkanovski], [Max] Holloway, and now Charles.”