Islam Makhachev has frequently put the blame on Ilia Topuria and his team for a potential fight not happening and now he’s put a number on that claim.
This past Sunday’s historic UFC White House event was headlined by Topuria defending his lightweight championship in a unification bout against interim titleholder Justin Gaethje, who went on to deliver a historic upset by defeating Topuria. Prior to that fight being announced, numerous matchups were speculated to be in talks for the card, including Topuria possibly moving up to welterweight to challenge Makhachev for his UFC title. However, negotiations didn’t progress far and both fighters have accused the other of avoiding the fight.
Makhachev revealed to Russian MMA journalist Adam Zubayraev that the UFC balked at booking the fight when Topuria’s team made an eight-figure demand.
“I got a call in the morning and was offered the fight,” Makhachev said. “I agreed without asking for anything. They offered me the fight themselves, with a higher purse. Then the next morning they called back and said that Topuria wanted something like $20 million. He was turned down.
“That was the end of it and a couple of hours later his manager gave an interview. He said that the money wasn’t enough for them to fight Islam, but for the same money, under their contract, they agreed to fight Gaethje.”
Topuria’s manager Malki Kawa offered their side of the story in a social media post shortly after Topuria vs. Gaethje was announced and he confirmed that a salary dispute was one of the reasons Topuria vs. Makhachev didn’t happen.
“That Monday before, I called and said, ‘Hey, are you guys going to use Ilia Topuria for this card?,’” Kawa said. “The answer was no. Wednesday comes around, I get a phone call that says he could fight, it’s his choice: Justin Gaethje or Islam Makhachev. Then I immediately said, ‘Shit, we want Islam.’ They said, ‘OK, great. We’ll give you X number to fight him.’ And I said, ‘Bro, you know that never will happen.’
“They said here’s the number, you have a choice, I said, ‘I want Islam.’ That’s exactly what I said. … That was on Wednesday.”
However, Kawa also claimed that Makhachev was never a realistic option, and Topuria also said in a separate interview that “I truly believe that is that the UFC doesn’t want to make it happen,” though the lightweight champion didn’t explain his reasoning.
In an interview with Red Corner MMA, Makhachev elaborated on the sequence of events that led to Topuria fight talks falling through.
“Some would say it’s not true, but I can show you the chats with my manager as we had calls and texts,” Makhachev said. “He called me, ‘The White House event, a fight against Topuria,’ and I said, ‘Let’s go,’ right away. I didn’t even ask for it, but [Makhachev’s manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] said that the pay would be higher because it was the White House, and I said, ‘It’s even better.’ But the next day he called me and said, ‘It’s cancelled.’ I said, ‘Why, what went wrong?’ And he told me that [Topuria] asked for some insane money and that was it.
“I already said that in some interviews that’s what happened, but then [UFC CEO] Dana [White] said it was true, but his manager himself said in an interview ‘the money we were offered for this fight was not enough, so we turned it down.’ It was his manager’s words. Ilia may say whatever he wants, but it was his manager who negotiated. My manager knows, his manager knows, I know.”
Makhachev’s availability has also allegedly been affected by a lingering hand injury, though Makhachev denied that an injury prevented him from fighting Topuria, despite Kawa supporting that narrative.
The welterweight champion has not fought since winning his title this past November, though he is now set for a defense against top contender Ian Machado Garry in the main event of UFC 330 on Aug. 15 in Philadelphia.
“I try not to get involved in this kind of verbal exchange online, but when they start talking nonsense and you keep silent, people start believing that what he says is true,” Makhachev said. “When [Topuria] claims that I pulled out because of the hand injury, it had nothing to do with the hand. I said ‘yes’ right away, without asking for more money and stuff like that.”
