Have you heard, that Dana White yesterday announced that Volkanovski and Diego Lopes will be fighting for the championship belt. Not for that interim title, but for a real belt. Topuria yesterday vacated his belt. He did that because it became problematic to cut weight, and he wants more challenge in lightweight 
Now I am interested to find out, who will Topuria fight. Islam from the start? No warm-up fight?
Now I am interested to find out, who will Topuria fight. Islam from the start? No warm-up fight? I've heard some rumours yesterday but wasn't sure if that's true, but it's official now.
That's a bold move by Ilia. Dana wasn't very keen on letting him jump up to challenge Islam, so he left him no choice and vacated his belt. Weight cutting is a pain but I don't believe that was the main reason, Topuria is not particularly big featherweight and I don't think he ever missed weight. The truth is, he'll make much more money fighting anyone from the top 10 of the lightweight than he would for defending the featherweight belt. And fight with Islam could be the fight of his life, I'm glad he went for it.
My first thought when I heard the news was that the UFC will make him fight someone else from the lightweight before allowing him to have a shot for the belt, but media are reporting that Islam Vs Topuria is already in the works.
Frankly, I don't see any other worthy contenders for Islam right now. Tsarukyan had his chance but blew it and won't be considered anytime soon. I just hope Islam doesn't do the same stunt and doesn't vacate his belt to move to the middleweight to fight Dricus lol