UFC CEO Dana White has announced that Ilia Topuria is giving up the UFC featherweight title. A new champion will be crowned in April at UFC 314. This was just the start of a series of announcements from White on Wednesday.
Following White’s announcement that Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes will compete for the vacant title when the UFC returns to Miami, Mike Heck and Damon Martin from MMA Fighting discussed Topuria’s move to vacate the title and his ambitions in the lightweight division. They considered whether Topuria might get an immediate shot at the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and shared their thoughts on the upcoming UFC 314 main event between Volkanovski and Lopes.
In addition, they covered the announcement of Michael Chandler vs. Paddy Pimblett as the five-round co-main event for the April pay-per-view. Other topics included Patricio Pitbull signing with the UFC to face Yair Rodriguez, and Belal Muhammad’s welterweight title defense against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in May, along with other news.
You can watch the full reaction to these announcements in the video. Audio versions are also available on various podcast platforms.
