"Wasn’t Khabib walking around at 220lbs?" - Fans react to reports of Ilia Topuria's 40-pound weight cut for featherweight fights

Former UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria recently made headlines when UFC CEO Dana White announced that the Spaniard would vacate the 145-pound title.

White announced that a fight between former champ Alexander Volkanovski and rising contender Diego Lopes would decide the new featherweight kingpin. According to White, Topuria felt he had achieved everything in the division and couldn't feel like his body could make the featherweight limit again.

In a post on X by MMA Uncensored, it was claimed that Topuria walked around at 187 pounds outside of his fight camps:

"Ilia Topuria was cutting 40 pounds to make the featherweight limit"

Many fans reacted to the post, with one saying:

"Wasn’t Khabib walking around at 220lbs?"

Other fans wrote:

"How is he 5’7 and 190lbs? I just don’t believe some of these guys are so heavy"

"He’d be built more like Torrez Finney, if he was walking around at 187"

Check out fan reactions to the post below:

Screenshot of fan reactions to the post.

'El Matador' will now compete in the lightweight division and is eyeing a fight against reigning champion Islam Makhachev. Topuria called out the Russian after he finished Renato Moicano at UFC 311.

The Spaniard might not be given a title shot straight away and may have to fight a ranked opponent first.

---

Islam Makhachev's manager Rizvan Magomedov advises Ilia Topuria to prove himself among lightweight elite before title shot

Ilia Topuria knocked out two of the greatest featherweight fighters of all time back-to-back. Despite the success, Islam Makhachev's manager Rizvan Magomedov still wants the featherweight champion to prove himself among the elite of his new division.

Magomedov has worked with Makhachev for many years and believes Topuria needs to beat either Charles Oliveira or Dustin Poirier at 155 pounds before getting a title shot.

The manager wrote on X:

"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."