Ilia Topuria is not opposed to the idea of someday pursuing championship glory in a third weight division. This was expressed by the former featherweight champion during a recent interview with MMA Junkie as Topuria heads in to a vacant lightweight championship bout this weekend. The Georgian-Spanish mixed martial artist will look to enter the rarefied air of two-division champions in UFC history when he aims to take out former 155-pound kingpin Charles Oliveiria in the headliner of UFC 317 on June 28th.
A fight that many thought would happen for Topuria though, is seemingly off the table with former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev vacating his 155 pound strap to pursue a welterweight title fight against sitting champion Jack Della Maddalena. The unbeaten pro MMA fighter does not think the Islam Makhachev fight has totally faded into the ether, though, as Ilia Topuria said,
“We’ll see how he does in the welterweight division. If he wins the title and I win the title in the lightweight division, maybe I move up or he comes down and we have the fight that everyone wants to see.”
Ilia Topuria and the history of fighters pursuing three division title accolades in MMA
If he gets his desired outcome in the coming days, Ilia Topuria would be in a great position to go on and become a titleholder across three weight categories following a Charles Oliveira victory, and there are some notable examples in mixed martial arts history of fighters who have pursued just that.
Martin Nguyen tried to do just this under the ONE Championship banner after previously holding titles at lightweight and featherweight. After contending for the lineal ONE bantamweight belt as well as the interim bantamweight strap, Nguyen would fall short of his lofty goal against Bibiano Fernandes and Kevin Belingon, respectively.
The fighter who many see as the Bellator MMA GOAT, Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire also endeavored to become a three-division titleholder after multiple reigns with that promotion's featherweight belt and a prior stint as the BMMA lightweight champion. Alas, the Brazilian standout would fall short to Sergio Pettis on points in his bid for Pettis' bantamweight belt at Bellator 297.
Anatoly Malykhin stands out as a three-division champion having held titles under the ONE Championship banner from middleweight up to heavyweight, while Juan Archuleta can claim to be a four-division champion while plying his trade with King of the Cage.
