Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria happens in 2025, claims MMA analyst during insightful breakdown: "Doesn't have great choices"

Veteran MMA analyst Luke Thomas recently predicted that a fight between lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev and undefeated phenom Ilia Topuria will happen in 2025. Thomas suggests Makhachev has limited options, making the matchup all the more likely.

Makhachev recently defended his lightweight title against Renato Moicano at UFC 311. Meanwhile, Ilia Topuria has vacated the featherweight strap to focus on his future at lightweight.

In a recent interview, Thomas was asked about the possibility of Makhachev vs. Topuria happening in the current year. The 45-year-old replied confidently it would happen, hilariously claiming the chance is bigger than Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall.

Thomas also pointed out that Makhachev's options at lightweight and even welterweight are inferior to Topuria. He said:

"Either way, Islam just doesn't have great choices, right? I mean, he's the number one pound-for-pound guy in the sport. He's the UFC lightweight champion. But if Shavkat, well, first of all, Belal is going to fight JDM. I suppose he could go up and fight JDM. I don't know how the UFC would feel about that. That seems like a maybe, but it's just a 'I don't know, maybe.'"

Thomas asserts that Topuria, presently #4 on the pound-for-pound rankings, deserves to be #2 over Jon Jones. As such, the MMA analyst claimed the potential fight between Topuria and Makhachev would be a mega fight between the sport's best.

Check out Luke Thomas' comments about Ilia Topuria below (52:49):

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MMA analyst forecasts Ilia Topuria's mega star potential

Conor McGregor is the biggest superstar to come out of the UFC. Ilia Topuria's featherweight title triumph eerily resembled that of McGregor. Moreover, 'El Matador' has openly claimed he aims to be bigger than the Irishman.

Luke Thomas believes that a victory over Islam Makhachev will elevate Topuria's stardom to another sphere. Thomas said:

"If Topuria beats him, he is going to be the biggest star in the sport by a country fu**ing mile. He can speak Spanish. You can take him all up and down the Western Hemisphere, to say nothing of Spain itself. He obviously has different roots beyond that with Georgia. He speaks English. He has huge power. He's still in his late 20s." [54:45 onwards in the aforementioned interview]