Quote from: pawel7777 on February 21, 2025, 05:29:37 PM

Quote from: TopTort777 on February 21, 2025, 08:35:28 AM

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 Cheesy

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

Mmm, let's pretend that Topuria not fighting for a title made sense for him... But then it would still be a risky move if he did cos what if he gets injured during training? That would mean waiting to heal to to fight not for the title and wait his turn again for him to fight for the title... Lol. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, here's the ceremonial weigh ins.

UFC Seattle: Ceremonial Weigh-In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbA9zzDm30

This gonna be a good event due to the low expectations given by the crowd. And was surprised to see Walker way taller than Menefield. I think Walker could win as the underdog. Just a gut feeling.