Earlier this week Ilia Topuria vacated the UFC Bantamweight title lining up a fight between Diego Lopes and Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 314. Lopes believes that Topuria’s more was a sign that the company will no longer have champion v. champion fights.
Topuria announced his intent to challenge for the lightweight title after defeating Max Holloway at UFC 308. Topuria’s vacancy likely makes his move to the 155 division imminent with a matchup against Islam Makachev a definite possibility.
Lopes told ESPN that the UFC told all of its champions that they could no longer move divisions with another division’s title. He believes that Topuria had to drop the title if he was going to move up in weight. Thus, the vacancy setting up Lopes v. Volkanovski. Certainly, Lopes would have been one of the challenger vying for the 145 pound crown next.
Payout Perspective:
The days of double champ are over. Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes and Daniel Cormier are the only UFC athletes to achieve the two title status. While it might be interesting and lucrative to have two champions fight, it also stalls both divisions from the challengers in the weight class. Dricus du Plessis may be the next fighter to jump to another division leaving his middleweight title to challenge for the light heavyweight crown.
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