Someplace contained in the White Home complicated within the small hours of the morning on June fifteenth, Ilia Topuria sat with a face that not seemed like his personal. Each eyes swollen, his nook’s determination already made, the belt he had carried from featherweight to light-weight stripped from him by a 37-year-old American veteran your entire sport had written off as a sacrificial lamb on the largest stage in UFC historical past.
Someplace on his telephone, Arman Tsarukyan had already posted “Ilia no mas,” timestamped to the second the towel went down. That picture tells you all the pieces about what the primary skilled lack of Topuria’s profession really means. An invite. Each fighter within the light-weight division spent Sunday night time recalculating.
Gaethje Upsets the Odds
The bookies hardly gave challenger Justin Gaethje a hope on combat night time. Standard Ozoon on-line betting web site listed the American warhorse so long as +400 to spring the upset, with the champion Topuria a mighty -500 favourite. And after a primary spherical by which El Matador dominated, these odds appeared solely correct.
However one thing unusual occurred as Topuria made his method again to the nook for the top of spherical 1. One among his eyes had already taken some extreme harm and was swollen shut. Gaethje would take full benefit, successful the second after which the third, dropping Topuria within the course of. By the top of that spherical, each of El Matador’s eyes have been now lined in cuts and bruises, and regardless of him having fun with his greatest spherical within the fourth, his nook pulled him out of the combat earlier than the fifth bought underway, handing the Spotlight a surprising TKO win.
Now Topuria has misplaced the model of himself he had been promoting to the world since he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski — the untouchable, the unbeaten, the pound-for-pound greatest who moved up a weight class and made it look simple. That identification is gone now. That model stop on the stool. What comes is his reckoning. However who could possibly be subsequent in line for the now-former light-weight champion? Listed here are the three almost certainly choices.
Justin Gaethje Rematch
Take into account what it really took for Gaethje to do what he did Sunday night time. A person who had held the interim light-weight title twice, who gained the BMF championship by knocking out Dustin Poirier within the second spherical at UFC 291, who had his coronary heart damaged by Max Holloway with one second left in spherical 5 at UFC 300 — a second so brutal it virtually felt like the game was telling him sufficient was sufficient.
Reminder that Justin Gaethje did that. #UFCFreedom250 pic.twitter.com/dC9wQUsruM
— Ozoon (@Ozoon_CA) June 15, 2026
Then, he bounced again. First got here a unanimous determination over Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313. Then, the subsequent massive factor, Paddy Pimblett, was dominated throughout 5 rounds at UFC 324 to win the interim strap once more. Then walked onto the South Garden of the White Home as a five-to-one underdog and stopped the pound-for-pound greatest fighter within the sport earlier than the fifth spherical. At 37. The complete sport informed him it was unattainable. He didn’t appear to get the message.
The non-public dimension was already uncooked earlier than a single punch was thrown. Topuria made that promotional video — the white rose on Gaethje’s casket — and pressed no matter nerve he thought he was urgent. Gaethje pressed again more durable, alluding to Topuria’s current divorce; each males’s households pulled right into a feud that had lengthy stopped being promotional and began being one thing uglier. Topuria’s Instagram submit after the stoppage was unambiguous: “This story between us is much from over.” The rematch is definitely the one combat that the UFC matchmakers could make subsequent.
Paddy Pimblett
The resort hall at UFC London in 2022 doesn’t occur with no careless Paddy Pimblett tweet from 2021 that referenced Georgians being “terrorized.” The Englishman says he had no concept that Georgia was at conflict in 2008. Perhaps that’s true. But it surely didn’t matter to Topuria, who took it as precisely what it seemed like and has by no means forgiven him for it. They clashed in person who following yr in London — not in a cage, not with gloves on, simply two fighters in a resort hall with real hatred between them. That’s the place this rivalry really began, and 4 years later, the 2 nonetheless haven’t met contained in the Octagon.
Earlier than the post-fight present at UFC Freedom 250 had even ended, Pimblett was on YouTube. His face intact — pointedly, intentionally intact — after 5 exhausting rounds towards Gaethje at UFC 324, calling Topuria a “little b*tch” for the nook stoppage and noting, with the actual cruelty of a person who is aware of precisely what he’s doing, that his personal face had seemed worse after that combat. He then referred to as for the Gaethje rematch himself, moderately than calling out a stricken Topuria at his lowest.
However the industrial argument for this combat is actual, and earlier than Gaethje’s beautiful win on the White Home garden, it carried extra clamor than a conflict between Topuria and the American veteran that in the end defeated him. Ought to Pimblett win his UFC 329 bout with Benoît Saint-Denis on July 11 and Gaethje not be out there for an instantaneous title protection, Pimblett vs Topuria would seemingly be the subsequent most popular choice.
Arman Tsarukyan
Arman Tsarukyan — ranked second within the UFC light-weight division, a person who knocked out Beneil Dariush within the first spherical, split-decisioned Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 in a combat billed as a title eliminator, submitted Dan Hooker with an arm-triangle in Doha — wager massive cash on Justin Gaethje to beat the person he has been making an attempt to combat for 2 years. Then posted the timestamp of the stoppage like a receipt.
The grievance runs deeper than a wager. He was set to problem Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 in January 2025 however pulled out with a again damage, and Dana White stripped him of the primary contender slot. He hasn’t come near a real title alternative since. He did function backup at UFC Freedom 250 ought to both fighter pull out late with an damage, however he in the end sat within the constructing, watched from the wings, and went residence empty-handed once more.
Topuria has lengthy been mocking the Armenian’s life-style, calling him a “man-child,” claiming he was “enjoying the sport of being wealthy.” Tsarukyan’s response was to accuse Topuria of intentionally avoiding him, particularly when El Matador praised each different contender within the division by identify however one way or the other by no means fairly bought round to the man sitting at quantity two. If it’s a real Caucasus blood feud that the UFC desires, one doesn’t get a lot larger than Topuria vs Tsarukyan.
