Islam Makhachev lashes out at Ilia Topuria: ‘Just a big mouth with a nice haircut’

Topuria vacated the UFC’s 145lb title to challenge Makhachev at 155lb, only for the latter to relinquish his belt and move up to 170lb

Islam Makhachev has fired back at Ilia Topuria over his claim that the Russian is a “hypocrite”, calling his distant rival: “Just a big mouth with a nice haircut.”

In February, Topuria vacated the UFC featherweight title with the aim of challenging Makhachev for the lightweight belt. However, Makhachev has now vacated his own title as he prepares to challenge Jack Della Maddalena for the welterweight strap, which “JDM” took from Makhachev’s friend Belal Muhammad this month.

Topuria will face former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the title vacated by Makhachev, but the Georgian-Spaniard would have rather tested himself against Makhachev; many in MMA deem the latter the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport, with Topuria close behind.

Topuria, 28, recently called Makhachev, 33, a “hypocrite” for giving up the 155lb belt after taking issue with “El Matador”’s decision to relinquish the 145lb gold. And now, Makhachev has hit back.

Topuria initially told Alvaro Colmenero: “He is the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever seen. He said he didn’t want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy, and now the little guy is the one looking for the same opportunity I was looking for...

“Ali [Abdelaziz, Makachev’s manager] should thank me for not beating his star. That’s the fight everyone wanted to see. I put everything I could on the table, and they ran away. Why chase? If someone runs away, you don’t have to bully them. I don’t want to fight people who don’t want to fight me either.”

Ilia Topuria (right) knocked out Max Holloway in October to keep hold of the featherweight gold (EPA)

Makhachev then tweeted on Thursday (15 May): “Difference between me and you [is] that I cleaned [up the] top list in my division, moved to [the] next. But you ran away from two contenders who had consecutive 5-9 wins in FW division. You are nobody in LW division, just a big mouth from Spain with [a] nice haircut. Go get one W, and we can talk boy.”

Makhachev was referring to the fact that he achieved a record-breaking four successful title defences at lightweight, while Topuria retained his belt once before vacating the strap.

Makhachev submitted Oliveira to win the vacant 155lb title in October 2022, before recording two successful defences against Alexander Volkanovski (who held the 145lb belt at the time) in 2023, one against Dustin Poirier in 2024, and one against Renato Moicano in January. He outpointed then knocked out Volkanovski in their fights, and submitted Poirier and Moicano.

Islam Makhachev (right) submitted Renato Moicano in January to retain the lightweight title (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Topuria knocked out Volkanovski last February to become featherweight champion, before retaining the gold with a knockout of former title holder Max Holloway in October.

Topuria is unbeaten in MMA at 16-0, while Makhachev is 16-1 in the UFC and 27-1 overall. Topuria debuted in the UFC in 2020, while Makhachev debuted in the promotion in 2015 – the same year he suffered his sole loss.