Ilia Topuria isn’t wasting any time when it comes to booking his next fight as the former two-division UFC champion seeks to bounce back from his first loss at the UFC White House card in June.
After his coaches stopped the fight following the end of the fourth round with Topuria absorbing huge amount of damage from Justin Gaethje, Topuria largely stayed in the shadows for the next few months outside of his initial Instagram post congratulating his opponent on a job well done. Topuria finally returned to social media few days ago with his latest post capped by the declaration “we are back!”
For his part, UFC CEO Dana White says the promotion has stayed in constant contact with Topuria as he recovered from a multitude of injuries suffered in that fight with Gaethje but it appears the former lightweight champion is ready to get back to work.
“Our guys are always in touch with them,” White told The Jim Rome Show. “We don’t have him on the schedule right now. Listen, Topuria’s ready to fight, we’re ready for him.”
Title or no title, Topuria remains one of the most popular and talked about athletes on the entire UFC roster but there have been rumors swirling that perhaps the UFC wants him to run it back against Gaethje sooner than later to capitalize on their epic first encounter.
Gaethje has shown little interest in giving Topuria an immediate rematch considering how the first fight ended.
There’s also a potential showdown out there for Topuria to return against Paddy Pimblett, who has been calling for that fight for the past couple of years.
White says these are all good problems to have as the UFC begins plotting what’s next for Topuria now that he’s ready to compete again.
“Both sound good to me,” White said. “They’re both great. We don’t lose with either one of those fights. They’re both great fights. Obviously the rematch with Gaethje is incredible. A Paddy Pimblett fight is amazing as bad as those two hate each other.”
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