The UFC world received a shock earlier this week when Dana White made an enormous announcement with regard to the Featherweight division.
After the Blockbuster victory of Topuria on Max Holloway at UFC 308 in October in October, 'El Matador' had a spontaneous face-off with former enemy, Alexander Volkanovski, which suggests a rematch between the two.
Rumors then started to circulate that Ilia Topuria started to defend his featherweight belt against Alexander 'The Great' on UFC 314 in April in Miami.
Although, earlier this week the UFC boss, Dana White announced that Topuria has shocked its featherweight title and will permanently go to 155 pounds.
Read more: Former UFC Double Champion explains what Ilia Topuria should have done differently after the title holiday
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Then Hooker believes that the UFC has stripped Topuria of his title for running Rematch
Although the former Australian champion does not get his Rematch against the 28-year-old Spaniard, White did reveal that the Main Event of UFC 314 will be an empty title fight between Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.
The teammate of Volkanovski, however, has offered his theory why Topuria gave the title of 145 pounds, and claimed that he was constantly running away from the planned rematch against 'The Great'.
“He is the man who has been inactive, I know that people are trying to fight Ilia and the UFC has tried to put the Ilia fight together and he constantly said he cannot make the weight,” Hooker said Against Submission Radio.
“If his plan was to shift and have a chance to win the other title and the UFC was the one who wanted it to happen, then there is no way they would strip him from his title before he disputed.
“I think they just took it from him as a bit of a show of power, just to be, brother, you fight when we tell you to fight, I think that's more about what's going on. .. I think it is a show of the UFC, like brother, if you continue to reject fights, you lose your title, “Hooker went on.
The lightweight title candidate admitted that he would not be surprised if 'El Matador' gets a lightweight title shot immediately, despite the fact that the Makhachev team does not want to fight.
Read more: 'Let's justify the facts' … The manager of Ilia Topuria hits the team of Islam Makhachev for refusing title fight
According to Diego Lopes, UFC no longer allows
The alleged reason for Topuria to leave the featherweight title is because he believes he has proven everything he can prove in the weight class and because the weight reductions began to take their toll.
However, Diego Lopes, featherweight title, has claimed that the UFC no longer allows double champions and this is why Topuria left the belt.
Following Conor McGregor's Double Champ Feat in 2016, it became the norm for UFC Champions to claim that they wanted to go up and down divisions.
This has begun to cause the promotion, since champion explains their plans to become a double champion before making different defenses in their own weight class.
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