Ilia Topuria talks weight cut, changing divisions, lightweight power on JRE
UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast where he went into detail about why a difficult weight cut led to him vacating the title and moving up a division.
Ilia Topuria caught the mixed martial arts world slightly off-guard when he announced earlier this year he’d be vacating the UFC featherweight title.
That the undefeated superstar decided to leave 145 pounds and take on a new challenge at 155 pounds was not necessarily the big surprise — it’s not entirely uncommon for a dominant champion to attempt to win a second belt — but it was more that Topuria specifically cited not wanting to continue cutting down to the featherweight limit as the primary reason for moving up to challenge bigger competition.
Topuria had never missed weight during his UFC career but at five-foot-seven and without a bulky build, he was not one of the biggest featherweights on the roster, which contributed to the surprise nature of his announcement.
The 16-0 Spanish-Georgian fighter went into detail about the arduous cut down to 145 pounds and how he envisions his run at lightweight unfolding during an appearance this week on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Rogan is a longtime member of the UFC’s broadcast commentary team and has called some of Topuria’s past fights, including at UFC 298 last year, when he won the title by knocking out featherweight great Alexander Volknaovski.
Topuria officially vacated the belt before the UFC 314 main event earlier this month that saw Volknaovski return to form and win the vacant title by schooling Diego Lopes for much of their five-round contest.
The 28-year-old followed up his win over Volknaovski by doing the same to former champ and fan favourite Max Holloway in October at UFC 308.
It was the first time Holloway, known for his durability and mettle, was finished by strikes in a professional bout. Holloway was returning to the featherweight division after taking time to put on weight and move up to lightweight for his UFC 300 BMF Title bout with Justin Gaethje in April 2024 that Holloway won in spectacular last-second fashion.
Rogan asked Topuria if he thought it was a mistake for Holloway to return to 145 pounds after he looked so good with a full training camp at 155 pounds, and Topuria responded: “100 per cent.”
The pair spoke for roughly 2.5 hours and a decent amount of time was spent on Rogan asking Topuria about intricacies of the weight change.
Topuria explained he walks around at about 180 pounds and losing roughly 35 pounds in the months leading up to an event to qualify for featherweight bouts became onerous.
“That was the hardest part of my training, of the fight game, for me,” Topuria said. “I wasn’t enjoying at all the last couple fights that I had because it’s like I had to be more professional with the weight cut than the fight game. It was taking a lot of time and energy from me.”
If Topuria ends up competing for the lightweight title, whether it’s immediately or eventually, he’ll be the fourth undisputed UFC featherweight champ to also fight for a lightweight strap. Volkanovski, Holloway and Conor McGregor before them moved up to 155 pounds to challenge for a lightweight title when they were the active 145-pound champion. Inaugural 145-pound champ Jose Aldo is the only one who didn’t.
McGregor was a massive featherweight during his prime fighting days, and as soon as he won the title, he left the division permanently without defending it even once.
Drastic weight cuts over prolonged periods can result in health issues, not to mention the body and brain cannot fully rehydrate between the weigh-in and the fight itself, which adds to potential health risks in an already risky combat sport.
“That’s also a big reason why I changed the weight class because I realize my health is the most important thing in my life,” Topuria said. “You can have everything in this life but if you’re not healthy, you don’t have anything. (During weight cuts) you sometimes feels like you’re really going to die. I wasn’t able to sleep at all for 48 hours because I was so dehydrated.”
Topuria’s typical cut down to 145 pounds
Topuria said he begins his calculated weight management as soon as he begins a training camp, typically 12 weeks before a fight. He allows himself one cheat meal per week, while maintaining a strict diet. He explained it’s not uncommon for him to burn roughly 4,000 calories in a day while consuming only 1,800.
When it comes to a standard fight week with an event on a Saturday night, Topuria said he begins water loading six days out, plus he cuts out all carbohydrates, sodium and fibre. The only food he eats are small portions of fats and proteins.
He drinks eight litres of water on both the Sunday and Monday, six litres Tuesday, four on the Wednesday and then stops drinking on Thursday and doesn’t drink anything until after the weigh-in itself on the Friday morning.
This is all while mixing in workouts and sweat sessions to get rid of excess water weight.
Topuria explained he prefers to go to bed on the Thursday night already on weight so he doesn’t need to do any additional cutting the morning of the weigh-in.
Rogan and Topuria shared a laugh at one point when the fighter recalled drinking wine while cutting weight before two of his early UFC fights (to aid in the dehydration process) but said he no longer includes that as part of his weight-shedding regimen.
When it comes to rehydrating, Topuria begins drinking small portions of electrolytes spread out slowly over several hours and he won’t begin eating anything until he is hydrated enough to urinate again. The day before and day of the fight, Topuria will eat plenty of carbohydrates to get his energy.
Topuria mentioned he has received help and advice from the staff at the UFC’s Performance Institute in regard to cutting weight and nutrition, and mentioned he believes more fighters would miss weight ahead of events were it not for the organization’s Las Vegas-based facility.
More pounds, more power
“You are gonna see, at 155, I’m gonna touch someone and I’m gonna (knock) his lights out,” Topuria said. “I don’t even need to touch his chin. If I touch his head, it will explode. I feel so powerful at that weight class, so stable on the ground. ‘You want to wrestle? Let’s wrestle. No problem. I have the gas tank for five days not five rounds.’”
Topuria’s next fight won’t technically be his lightweight debut and there’s already evidence he carries knockout power in the weight class.
He is 1-0 in lightweight bouts thanks to a 2022 knockout win over Jai Herbert. Topuria was 3-0 in the UFC at the time when he accepted a bout up at lightweight on relatively short notice and sent Herbert to dreamland with a devastating punching combination not entirely unlike the one he used to put away Volk to win the title.
Topuria returned to featherweight after that win, where he submitted Bryce Mitchell then schooled Josh Emmett to earn his title shot before his remarkable two-win 2024 campaign.
Formerly “El Matador,” Topuria also recently announced he was changing his nickname to “La Leyenda” to coincide with the next chapter of his fighting career. Topuria told Rogan he is “very excited” about his pending move up to 155 pounds.
Immediate title shot or no?
The UFC has not yet announced Topuria’s next fight, however, after he knocked Holloway out, there was plenty of speculation about a champion vs. champion matchup, and he and Rogan speculated on what could be next for undisputed lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Rogan said he wants the UFC to put together a Makhachev vs. Topuria fight, to which Topuria agreed with a smile, however, both also mentioned they think Makhachev could pursue the welterweight title depending on the outcome of next month’s UFC 315, headlined by Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena — Makhachev and Muhammad are friendly, have trained together and Muhammad has indicated he is not interested in facing a training partner.
Two of Makhachev’s title defences were over Volkanovski — one a classic five-rounder from UFC 284 and the sequel a short-notice rematch that Makhachev won via head-kick knockout in Round 1 — and he has said Topuria should prove himself in the division before immediately stepping into a title fight.
Makhachev said of Topuria in December that he’s a “good, skilled fighter but I don’t want to give him a chance.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov, who’s Makhachev’s coach, teammate and the former undisputed 155-pound champ, recently said he thinks Arman Tsarukyan is more deserving and a tougher challenge for Makhachev.
Tsarukyan was scheduled to face Makhachev at UFC 311 in January, but a back injury resulted in Tsarukyan withdrawing from the matchup on the eve of the event; Makhachev instead made quick work of Renato Moicano for his latest title defence.
If Topuria doesn’t fight Makhachev next, then a bout with former lightweight champ and current No. 2 contender Charles Oliveira could be an option.
“Anyways, if they give me the fight with Charles, it’s gonna be a good one too,” Topuria told Rogan.
Oliveira is coming off a win over Michael Chandler in November and has a history with both Makhachev and Tsarukyan. Makhachev became champion in 2022, when he submitted Oliveira at UFC 280, and Tsarukyan became No. 1 contender by winning a three-round split decision over Oliveira one year ago at UFC 300.
“Ilia’s a tough fighter,” Oliveira said of Topuria possibly moving up back in November. “He talks the talk and walks the walk (but) I think you have to be very careful when you’re coming up to lightweight because this is a very tough division.”
Whether it’s the current champ Makhachev, a former champ like Oliveira or any of the other top-ranked lightweight contenders, Topuria will be guaranteed a marquee matchup.
Although it is not clear what month Topuria could return, the UFC has not booked any matchups for UFC 317 in late June but Topuria, in theory, would be an ideal athlete to feature during the organization’s annual International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
