“The hunt begins…” - Fans go wild over Ilia Topuria’s 4-word teaser statement

Ilia Topuria has established himself as one of the best featherweights of all time in the UFC before finally vacating his title to move up to the lightweight division of the promotion. Ever since the move up, the fighter has been constantly calling out Islam Makhachev for a title bout, but has met with no positive response. Makhachev’s teammates and training partners, like Khabib Nurmagomedov, even went on to explain the reason for the Dagestani fighter ignoring the former featherweight champion’s fight requests. However, a recent post by Topuria has raised the curiosity of fans to the extent that a possible Topuria bout is rumored at UFC International Fight Week.
It has been quite some time since Ilia Topuria last fought in the Octagon. His last bout was against Max Holloway at UFC 308, where the fighter earned a knockout win against the latter. Post the announcement of move up to the lightweight division in february 2025, Touria has been making the headlines while calling out the current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. While Makhachev’s team has not responded with a green light, there are instead rumors of the Dagestani fighter being in talks for a move up to the welterweight division.
Amidst all these, Topuria recently shared a cryptic post on the social media platform X, that has left the fans in a frenzy and curious about whom the fighter is scheduled to face. He wrote, “The camp has begun”

The post instigated several queries and random guesses amongst the fan community. While some questioned if it was Conor McGregor, others questioned if Makhachev vacated the title and it was some other top contender from the lightweight division that Topuria might be facing.
One of the users wrote, “Is it against Islam or for a vacant title?”

Another one wrote, “Now that they don’t have DDP vs Khamzat for international fight week they are forced to do Islam vs Ilia. LETS GOOOOOO”

One fan even took a wild guess for the opponent to be McGregor
“McGregor?”

“The hunt begins…”

While the speculations are on a rise, noted reporter Alvaro Colmenero reposted Topuria’s statement while disclosing the information that he has received, “Ilia Topuria will be fighting at International Fight Week, for a title I am told”

Also read: Former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya reveals the name of potential opponent for his comeback bout - “You will like this one”
Topuria’s long wait for a lightweight bout might just come to an end. A title win in the lightweight division would land the fighter with a two-division win champion status, a record shared by only a handful of fighters within the UFC.