‘I’ll just touch his head and it will explode’: Ilia Topuria on move to UFC’s lightweight division

Former UFC featherweight champ Ilia Topuria was already a powerful striker, but now that he’s moving to 155, Topuria is predicting that power going to game-changing levels.

“You are going to see me at 155 that I’m going to touch someone and I’m going to take his lights out,” Topuria said on the Joe Rogan Experience. “I don’t need to touch his chin. I’ll just touch his head and it will explode.

“I feel so powerful at that weight class, so powerful, so stable on the ground. Do you want to wrestle? Let’s wrestle. No problem. And I have the gas tank for five days, not five rounds.”

Topuria vacated the featherweight title in lieu of a move to the UFC’s loaded 155-pound division. The undefeated fighter knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to win the belt at UFC 298 in February 2024, then successfully defended it by becoming the first fighter ever to stop Max Holloway with strikes at UFC 308 this past October.

The permanent move up a weight class is a new challenge for Topuria, and when asked if there are fighters who have been competing in the wrong weight class, Topuria says it’s about individual needs and circumstances.

“It depends: Some of them, yes. Some of them, no,” Topuria explained. “I think there are guys fighting at 145 that they could fight at 135 because there are smaller... like José Aldo. But at the same time, he was a world champion for so long, and one of the best. Maybe he would’ve cut the weight to 135 [earlier in his career] and wouldn’t have the energy.”