Another champ is vacating his title to fight in a different division.
First, Ilia Topuria vacated the UFC Featherweight title back in February and Islam Makhachev is following the same footsteps as he’s relinquishing the UFC Lightweight title in order to pursue a fight against the newly crowned 170-pound champion, Jack Della Maddalena.
But Dana White has already come up with a solution for the lightweight title. The UFC CEO confirmed that llia Topuria will fight Charles Olivera for the belt at UFC 317 in June.
Makhachev originally won the lightweight title at UFC 280 by beating Charles Olivera. He’s successfully defended the belt four times; beating Dustin Poirier (UFC 302), Alexander Volkanovski (UFC 284 and UFC 294), and Renato Moicano (UFC 311). Makhachev hasn’t lost a fight in ten years, and is currently in the midst of a 15 fight winning streak.
Jack Della Maddalena dismantled Belal Muhammad this past weekend in order to become the next UFC Welterweight Champion. Maddalena is currently on a 18-fight winning streak, and this will be his first official title defense. The UFC Welterweight Champion was indeed open to fighting Makhachev and wanted to avenge Volk’s losses with a win. Makhachev wasn’t too keen on that statement.
As for when the fight is scheduled to take place, an official date has yet to be confirmed. Both men are aiming for something this year, with Ali Abdelaziz - the manager for Islam - promising a title fight in 2025.
“Islam will fight this year, regardless of whether Della Maddalena is injured or not injured, this is what I was told by Dana, Hunter (Campbell), everybody. They said, Jamahal Hill got injured, we (stripped him)… Islam will fight for the title, and for the real one, not the interim,” Abdelaziz told MMAJunkie.
Maddalena isn’t shooting down the possibility of fighting this year, though he’s hoping it’s in mid to late 2025.
“There are no plans yet, but yeah, I reckon we’ll be getting back in there within the next four to five months, I believe, some point mid to late end of the year we’ll get something going,” Della Maddalena told Fox Sports Australia.
It should be a great fight! Given the history of both men then this has a strong fight of the year potential.