Ilia Topuria claims he is moving on from featherweight, targets #1 contender bout with Charles Oliveira at lightweight

UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has sensationally revealed that he could be planning on moving up to lightweight in the near future.

For the longest time, Ilia Topuria has served as one of the most impressive fighters in all of mixed martial arts. For the most part, his accomplishments have come at featherweight, which is the division in which he currently holds the gold right now. Moving forward, the expectation was that he’d stay there and defend his crown – at least a few times, if he’s able to do so.

RELATED: Charles Oliveira cautions Ilia Topuria against moving up to lightweight: “This is a very tough division”

Alas, the thing about Topuria is that he’s pretty unpredictable. He knows that he has a great deal of star power behind him right now, and he wants to maximise that in any way that he can. One idea that he’s toyed with in the past is a shift up to lightweight in pursuit of a second world title.

In a recent interview, he revealed that he plans on moving to 155 pounds sooner rather than later.

Topuria looks to the future

“El Matador” was blatantly asked if his last fight against Holloway was his last at Featherweight, and he said, “Yes, for sure. Definitely yes.”

“We need to talk about it and take a look at my future, but for me, it’s very clear how I want to do it,” Topuria said. “I’d like to move up to the next weight class, and since Islam [Makhachev] is the champion fighting in January, and he won’t be ready for April or May, I’d like to fight against the No. 1 contender right now, who’s Charles Oliveira… I’m 27; I hope to be out by 30.”

Quotes via MMA Mania

Buckle up, folks, because things are getting interesting.