Ilia Topuria vacating title before moving up is a tell-tale sign of UFC changing their mind about a historically significant rule, says Ariel Helwani

Ariel Helwani recently shared his thoughts on Ilia Topuria moving up to lightweight after vacating the featherweight championship. He also detailed how it marked the UFC making a significant change to their rule about titleholders keeping their belts while changing weight classes for specific fights.

Earlier this week, Dana White dropped some significant news on social media and announced Topuria's move to lightweight. He also explained that 'El Matador' couldn't make weight at featherweight anymore and believed he's solidified his legacy in the 145-pound division.

White also announced that Alexander Volkanovski will fight Diego Lopes for the vacant featherweight title.

While many were excited to see Topuria potentially challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt, many questioned why the Georgian-Spanish fighter had to vacate his belt.

Addressing the same, Helwani recently broke down Topuria's next move and pointed out that Volkanovski fought at lightweight twice without vacating the featherweight title. He said:

"The big question is, why couldn't he have just kept the belt? We've seen this right? We've seen it with Volk. Volk moved up to 155 [pounds] to fight Islam Makhachev and he kept the belt. He kept the belt twice... My understanding is, the UFC isn't a fan of this right now."

He continued:

"They're not a huge fan of champion vs. champion and one guy keeps the belt... They don't like holding up divisions. That has often been their stance, but I'm told, as of late, unless there's an incredible circumstance they're not a huge fan of it."

Watch Ariel Helwani's full video here:

Screenshot from @arielhelwani on X

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Islam Makhachev's manager talks Ilia Topuria challenging for lightweight championship

With Ilia Topuria confirmed to move up to lightweight, many expect him to fight Islam Makhachev for the title. However, it appears that the title fight may not go down as soon as fans think.

In a recent X post, Makhachev's manager dismissed Topuria fighting for the 155-pound belt right away and called for him to fight Charles Oliveira or Dustin Poirier in a title eliminator. He wrote:

"Topuria vs Dustin/Charles contender fight, to prove he's legit lightweight. So we don't have to defeat another 'small featherweight.' We need big fight that make sense for everyone. We already gave chances to featherweight champ that was reigning for long time."