Michael Chandler doubts Ilia Topria will roam at 190 pounds

Michael Chandler doesn’t buy Ilia Topria to roam that heavy thing.

The manager of Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) claimed that Topuria had cut nearly 50 pounds to reduce its 145 pound featherweight limit.

Chandler (23-9 MMA, 2-4 UFC) considers the claims made by the Topuria manager to be overly decorated.

“I think he’s lying a bit about his weight,” Chandler said in an interview with Covers.com. “I don’t think he weighs 190 pounds. I saw the guy. I was standing next to him. We had a conversation.

“That being said, yeah, I think it’s cool for him to fight someone in the top five to get a title shot. But again, the UFC does what they want to do, they’ll have the biggest fight that makes sense, and they mean Topuria vs. Islam (Makhachev).”

Topuria fought once in Lightweight in March 2022 when he knocked out Jai Herbert to earn his first UFC bonus. He then returned to featherweight, abdicated Alexander Volkanovski to the champion and returned to a run that included defending the belt against Max Holloway with another knockout at UFC 308.

UFC Lightweight Champion Makhachev and his team believe Topria must defeat the top contender before fighting for the title. Chandler, who met Paddy Pimblett at the UFC 314 co-main event in Miami on April 12th, agrees and warns Topuria that lightweighting will be another experience.

“Traditional wisdom would say yes (he shouldn’t jump straight into Makhachev,” Chandler said. “His (fourth) fight in the UFC was lightweight. He was dropped into a head kick. Now I don’t say it will happen. Or our lightweight is much bigger and worse than the small featherweight.