Topuria Makhachev Submission Claim: Crazy Talk or Calculated Warfare?
Ilia Topuria just made the boldest claim in MMA: he’s going to submit Islam Makhachev while Khabib Nurmagomedov watches from cageside.
Sounds insane—until you remember Topuria is a legitimate black belt who choked out Bryce Mitchell, a grappling specialist. His guillotine technique is elite. His physical strength at featherweight is freakish. And if he moves to lightweight, he’d be one of the thicker, more powerful fighters in the division.
The Topuria Makhachev callout isn’t just trash talk. It’s layered psychological warfare targeting the Dagestani mystique. Whether he can actually pull it off is another question—but dismissing it outright misses what makes this matchup fascinating.