“He cannot be sick” – Islam Makhachev’s return to the camp reignites hope for a lightweight title bout with Ilia Topuria

A couple of days back, former featherweight championIlia Topuriaposted on X, announcing the start of his training camp. With multiple events on the line for the UFC, quite a few cards are left open, which has added to the curiosity of the fans as to whom the fighter is scheduled to face. While speculations were on the rise, another piece of information that has taken the MMA community by storm is the start of training camp for the current lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.
In recent times, the UFC saw a move up of fighters across different weight divisions. Former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria vacated his title in February 2025 and moved up to the lightweight division, immediately calling for a title shot against Islam Makhachev. The current lightweight champion and his team, however, did not have a positive response to the callout, and instead, there were talks of Makhachev moving up to the welterweight division to secure a two-division champion status. However, the Dagestani’s move up has not been confirmed as of yet, and instead a news on the training camp of the fighter broke out, which has had the fans on the edge.
Spanish MMA reporter Álvaro Colmenero took to X and posted saying, “I can confirm that Islam Makhachev has already started a training camp for his next fight.”

Not just this, but a video of Makhachev with a Spanish YouTuber, Alejandro Cid, saw the fighter’s trainer mentioning a training camp. Cid, who himself was a judo player, seemed to have been enjoying the company of the Dagestani fighter so much that their talk could have been extended through their next training session. However, the fighter interaction was cut short when the coach jumped in between and reminded Makhachev about his training camp.
“It’s so cold, brother sorry. He cannot be sick. We have training camp.”

With these statements going viral, fans have started concluding that the fighter is scheduled for a possible bout against Topuria, who has been calling out the lightweight champion since a long time.
One of the users wrote, “He didn’t duck Topuria?? Very surprising”

Another one wrote, “Why the hell can’t they confirm they fight is on then?”

“Interesting “He cannot be sick, we have training camp” and Illia just said he started camp so its for sure Islam vs Illia in June”

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While these are just fan speculations, nothing has been confirmed as of now. UFC fans are eyeing at the main event of UFC 317, the cards of which are still vacant, and might just turn out to be the biggest bout of the year.