Ilia Topuria wants Justin Gaethje again, and he’s convinced Gaethje’s bank account will make the decision for both of them. In an interview with Adam Catterall, shared by Championship Rounds on X, Topuria said he expects the rematch to happen before Gaethje hangs it up, and he gave a very practical reason why.
“The most amount of money he made in his life was against me. I don’t think he’s gonna retire without one more paycheck,” Topuria said.
That’s a fighter reading the business side of the sport out loud. Gaethje has said nothing about a second fight in any of the material out so far, so for now this is Topuria’s pitch, delivered with a lot of confidence for a guy coming off the loss.
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And it was a rough loss. In the same Catterall sit-down, Topuria credited his brother with stopping the fight and keeping him from absorbing more damage. “If he wouldn’t stop the fight, probably I wouldn’t be able to fight again in my life. I’m so grateful with my brother,” he said. Hearing a fighter thank the person who ended his night is rare, and it says plenty about how bad things had gotten in there.
His first interview after the defeat, flagged by Championship Rounds via @KOlmeneroMMA, carried a different tone. “The fire inside me is even bigger now,” Topuria said. In other comments circulated by FightLuck, he called it the worst day of his career and asked, “What’s worse? Dying?”
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What’s next
The rematch talk comes with a complication. Topuria already has his next opponent picked. “I’m coming back in April. Paddy, Paddy, Paddy,” he said, pointing straight at Paddy Pimblett. Dana White, speaking with Jim Rome, confirmed the UFC is working on Topuria’s return without naming an opponent. “He’ll come back in early 2027. We’re working on that,” White said.
Then there’s the retirement wrinkle. In comments reported by abc_es, Topuria floated walking away after the Pimblett fight. “I’ve achieved everything, and after this fight what else? Maybe I’ll even retire,” he said. So within the span of a couple of days he’s talked about retiring after Paddy, and also about collecting a second meeting with Gaethje before Gaethje retires. Both can’t be the plan unless the Gaethje fight jumps the line or Topuria’s “maybe” turns into a no.
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My take: the Gaethje rematch is the fight that actually answers something. Pimblett is a big-money name, sure, but beating him in April doesn’t erase what happened the last time Topuria shared a cage with Gaethje, and Topuria knows it. That’s why he keeps circling back. The paycheck line is a smart bit of needling, aimed right at Gaethje’s wallet, but the motive is pretty clearly his own. If he means it, the cleanest version of this story is him handling Pimblett in April and calling Gaethje out in the cage that night. If he retires before that rematch happens, the last real thing anyone remembers will be his brother stopping the fight.
