Islam Makhachev’s team issue definitive response to rumor about UFC 315

There has been a lot of talk about Topuria potentially facing Charles Oliveira but the matchup that many want to see would have ‘La Leyenda’ going straight into a title fight.

Islam Makhachev defending the lightweight belt against the undefeated star would make a lot of sense for the main event of this year’s International Fight Week, UFC 317 on June 28.

Despite this, a recent report claimed that Makhachev wouldn’t likely be competing on this date due to his plan to wait and see what happens at UFC 315.

Ali Abdelaziz says Islam Makhachev waiting to make his next move is ‘Fake News’

At UFC 315 on May 10, Belal Muhammad will make the first defense of his welterweight title against Jack Della Maddalena in Montreal.

Islam Makhachev waiting for the result of this matchup before making a decision about his next move would make sense for the lightweight champion.

In the case that Della Maddalena pulls off the upset, it would allow him to prepare for a move up to welterweight which he would clearly prefer rather than facing another former featherweight champion in Ilia Topuria next time out.

Muhammad, who has trained with Makhachev and his team in the past, keeping hold of the belt would likely mean that the pound-for-pound king will stay at 155-pounds for at least one more title defense until it is the right time for him to move up, making the Topuria matchup the path to go down even if it was delayed.

Though it seems reasonable that this would be true and therefore rule both the champion and the matchup with Topuria out of headlining International Fight Week, the report has received some pushback from the titleholder’s camp.

Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz recently responded to a post where he gave his clear and concise thoughts on the legitimacy of the report.

UFC 317 has its first major matchup already announced

With it now seeming like Kai Kara-France has got his preparations underway for a rematch with flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, a pivotal flyweight matchup is the first big fight to be booked for UFC 317.

June 28 in Las Vegas will see two of the top contenders at 125-pounds, Brandon Royval and Manel Kape, meet over three rounds to likely decide who the next challenger is.

The two men were set to collide back in March until Royval withdrew due to concussion symptoms that he had been suffering from ahead of the fight.

Kape went on to produce a dominant performance against Asu Almabayev with many questioning at the time whether ‘Starboy’ had done enough to overtake Kara-France in the title picture.