Ilia Topuria’s next fight SHOULD be against Islam Makhachev because we need revenge for…

So Makhachev’s bedtime story about “Dublin magic” never dies, eh? Tell me—how many of you still believe judges hand out wins based on whose wristband sparkles brighter under the spotlight?

topuria cleaned house in dublin fight deffo—those 12 *clean* takedowns? cage control like he had a gps on makhachevs back 💪 they robbed us wholesale like a broken parking meter 🤬 how can ANYONE watch that card again without throwing their tv out the window? makhachev got gifted the belt cos some drunk judges decided "nah mate your 28-27 is still valid" 😱 get ilia back in there RIGHT NOW and watch that belt change hands the RIGHT way 🔥 next fight HAS to be revenge or i swear im painting "298 REVERSED" on every toronto bus

I walked past the newsagent this morning and saw the UFC 298 judges’ scorecards stuck to the back page like yesterday’s lottery flyers. The same pack of lads who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag in Dublin were suddenly acting as if Islam Makhachev’s arm raised over Ilia’s proved something other than a glaring dereliction of duty. Twelve clean takedowns, cage pressure that looked like GPS with a direct line to Makhachev’s spine, and still we’re expected to nod along while those three pencils at ringside chiselled 28-27 into the official ledger. That’s not a close decision; it’s a metaphor for every fan who ever got mugged by a scorecard after paying full price for a first-row ticket. Makhachev may have stepped away with the hardware, but the only thing he really walked away with was a free advertisement for why Topuria’s next fight needs to be framed as the one-in-a-lifetime chance to run the tape back through a competent set of eyes.

ain’t it just the same old song when judges in striped jackets suddenly forget the rulebook in the final round you remember what that looked like in madrid when the scorecards came out like a surprise party nobody wanted he wasn’t even down and they still dusted off the blue one for the other fella that’s not sport that’s a theatre group how many nights have we gone home with receipts saying we paid to watch daylight robbery i tell you straight after 20 years of saturday afternoons in front of flickering screens you learn one thing the judges’ pencils are lighter than the champ’s title belt

yeah nah mate you’re all stuck in a Netflix documentary about the robbery of the century while the real world’s moved on to season 3😂 Topuria ain’t sitting around polishing his chequebook from Dublin, he’s already lining up to shatter someone’s jaw cos he knows Makhachev’s just another fight in a long line of paper tigers

what sort of backwater divvy reckons Topuria’s just gonna swagger into another match and let Makhachev strut round the cage on some ghost of a robbed decision? that boy’s sharpened his knives since Dublin, you reckon he sits around replaying scorecards or does he actually fight? remember the French lad at 291, not three weeks after Dublin—Ilia stepped in there, tore through him like the judge’s pen never touched him, bent him every which way until the ref waved it off in round two. same Topuria, different Saturday night: twelve clean takedowns in Dublin and they paid him back with Monopoly money—fair enough—but next fight he’s not asking nicely, he’s demanding the belt back in the flesh while the world watches live. Makhachev might think his “undefeated” badge still shines, but Ilia’s already shipped him inside and then some in sparring, so when they lock the cage again it won’t be the judges writing history, it’ll be Ilia drawing the picture in bruises.

Topuria’s not some scrub hanging around waiting for a rematch—he’s already shown he don’t care about judges. Remember Montreal in July? Ilia fought straight outta Dublin, next card up, stepped in against Garry Tonon at UFC Paris. Two rounds, no fuss. Tonon didn’t even manage a clean trip; Topuria had him folded over like a bad book, referee had to pull them apart because the damage looked set to get messier than a back-alley knitting circle. Makhachev can keep his “undefeated” banner in the closet where it belongs—Ilia’s got two arms, two legs, and a date with destiny that starts the second they lock eyes under those bright Lights.

Those scorecards in Dublin still make me see red every time I replay that night, but it's not just the robbery—it's the timing. Topuria’s already moved on and that’s the beauty of it; he doesn’t need a rematch wrapped in sympathy wrapping paper. Look at Paris a few weeks later: two rounds, Tonon gasping like a landed carp before the ref had to step in. Makhachev might still be cosplaying as "undefeated," but Ilia’s already put a bodybag sticker on two different opponents since Dublin and one of them was a BJJ black belt. The man’s not collecting dust, he’s collecting KO points and letting his hands do the talking. Still, I’ll let you in on something personal—last time I was in the stands for an Ilia fight live, the guy in front of me kept shouting “he’s holding back!” like it’s a WWE pre-match promo. Ilia heard him plain as day and answered in round one with a calf kick that made that critic change seats halfway through the round. Makhachev will find out the same hard way: Ilia Topuria doesn’t do rematches, he does revenge tours.

Damn right those 28-27 scores were written by three blokes who’d just flunked their referee course and called it a "learning exercise". Topuria’s next fight? Against Makhachev or anyone else who thinks the cage is still his ATM. The Irish crowd paid to watch daylight robbery—now Makhachev can line up for his own private screening, free replay included, because Ilia don’t do “close decisions”, he does highlight reels. And when the dust settles, Makhachev’s “undefeated” badge goes straight into the bin labelled “paid actors” 😏

yeah but if we keep crying robbery every time Ilia loses a 10ft step lol Makhachev’s belt ain’t gonna fly off the cage cos we bleat about pens in Dublin that’s what grown men do—take it on the chin and get better ya dig

See this right here — that’s the difference between watching Topuria and watching paint dry. Every time Ilia steps in, he doesn’t just fight, he answers. Dublin? Twelve clean takedowns and the judges still found a way to hand him a loss on a silver platter? Fine. But Paris came three weeks later, and suddenly the world saw what we all knew: Ilia doesn’t need a rematch to punish the lie. He doesn’t walk into cages wondering “should I?” — he walks in knowing “I will.” The judges wrote the wrong score in Dublin, but Ilia didn’t need their pen to write his next chapter in blood and technique. Makhachev might still be printing “undefeated” on souvenir posters, but he’s never faced a man who already answered the robbery with a two-round dismantling of a BJJ black belt. And the best part? He answered while the same people who called the decision a heist were watching live. So yeah, revenge would be poetic. But vengeance? That’s Ilia’s specialty — and he doesn’t wait for invitations.