Ilia Topuria still isn’t allowed to get hit in practice. The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion is under recovery protocols following his loss to Justin Gaethje, and by his own account full-contact training won’t come back until January.
Bloody Elbow reported the restriction, built off what Topuria told One on One MMA. He didn’t dress it up.
“Starting in January, I’m gonna be able to get back to my training at 100 percent,” Topuria said. “Until this point, I haven’t been able to have any kind of contact, like sparring, wrestling, grappling, all that.”
So the drilling is happening. The live work isn’t. Topuria said he has been doing technique, strength and conditioning, and some light running, then admitted he doesn’t know yet how his body will hold up once the real rounds start.
“So once I get back to training in January, let’s see how I’m gonna feel, how my body’s gonna respond,” he said.
How He Got Here
The damage traces back to June and the UFC Freedom 250 main event at the White House, where Gaethje finished Topuria after four rounds. That ended Topuria’s reign at 155 and handed him his first MMA defeat. It also made Gaethje the undisputed lightweight champion, a title he had been chasing for a long time.
Topuria didn’t get knocked out cold. He took enough punishment, though, to trigger concussion and health protocols, and Bloody Elbow described him as barely recognizable afterward. Topuria has said he struggled to look at his own face in the mirror. After going mostly silent following the loss, he resurfaced in September and said he was back in the gym in a limited capacity.
What’s Next
Topuria has floated April 2027 as a possible return. That lines up with Dana White saying plans are in the works for the Spaniard’s next fight, though nobody has put a name or a date on a contract.
The name Topuria wants is Gaethje. Gaethje has refused to entertain an immediate rematch. Topuria keeps pushing anyway, and he recently ran an opponent poll on Instagram. Fifty-five percent of voters picked a second fight with “The Highlight” over a grudge match with Paddy Pimblett.
That isn’t a landslide. A 55-45 split tells you plenty of people would happily watch Topuria and Pimblett settle their beef while Gaethje goes about his business as champion.
I’ll give Topuria this. He answered the health question straight, laid out what he can and can’t do, and skipped the usual vague line about feeling great and being back soon. The math is still tight. If January is the first time he takes a live shot since the White House, that leaves about three months of hard sparring before an April fight, against either a champion who already broke him down or a loudmouth who will gladly test whatever is left. A tune-up date in April makes sense. A Gaethje rematch in April feels rushed, and Gaethje isn’t offering one anyway.
