{"id":28227,"date":"2026-09-16T12:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=28227"},"modified":"2026-09-16T12:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:49:15","slug":"ilia-topurias-coach-shuts-down-imminent-ufc-comeback-despite-dana-whites-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=28227","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria&#8217;s coach shuts down imminent UFC comeback despite Dana White&#8217;s claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-label\">Trending:<\/span><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-border\"\/><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-border-2\"\/>Jose Aldo set for October 4th fighting return vs. former UFC title challenger<span class=\"photo-credit\">Credit: Zuffa LLC<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Former UFC two-division champion Ilia Topuria\u2019s team contradicted Dana White\u2019s recent claims about an imminent comeback.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ilia Topuria suffered one of the biggest upset defeats in UFC history earlier this year against Justin Gaethje. In his first lightweight title defense at UFC Freedom 250, Topuria suffered his first setback in the Octagon.<\/p>\n<p>After suffering multiple broken orbital bones at UFC Freedom 250, Topuria is still recovering from the damage sustained in the Octagon. But UFC CEO Dana White recently seemed optimistic about Topuria returning to the cage soon.<\/p>\n<p>White raised eyebrows when he said that Topuria is \u2018ready to fight\u2019 and that the matchmakers are considering multiple options for his comeback. This includes a potential Paddy Pimblett grudge match\u00a0and an immediate rematch with Gaethje.<\/p>\n<p>Despite White\u2019s optimism, Topuria\u2019s team seemed to contradict the UFC head.<\/p>\n<h2>Ilia Topuria\u2019s coach contradicts Dana White\u2019s claims about imminent UFC comeback<\/h2>\n<p>In a recent interview with a Spanish reporter, Topuria\u2019s coach Jesus Gallo countered White\u2019s recent claims about the former lightweight champ\u2019s return.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s news to me. I don\u2019t know what he [Dana White] is referring to or what information he\u2019s using to make that kind of announcement,\u201d Gallo said of Topuria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, we are focused on starting to train and getting a training camp back up and running. At this moment, [a comeback fight] isn\u2019t our focus\u2026 He\u2019s really progressing incredibly well, but we haven\u2019t started a real training camp yet. We haven\u2019t even truly begun any kind of MMA training yet.\u201d (<em>h\/t Bloody Elbow<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>As of this writing, Topuria hasn\u2019t publicly announced when he wants to return to the Octagon.<\/p>\n<p>Before falling to Gaethje, Topuria won the then-vacant UFC lightweight title by knocking out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. Amidst personal issues away from the Octagon, Topuria took a full year away from the cage before returning at the White House.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Who should Ilia Topuria fight next? Share your thoughts in the comments!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-1 mt-0 os-source\">This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ilia-topuria\/ilia-topuria-coach-shuts-down-comeback-dana-white-claims\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ilia-topuria-coach-shuts-down-comeback-dana-white-claims\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trending:Jose Aldo set for October 4th fighting return vs. former UFC title challengerCredit: Zuffa LLC Former UFC two-division champion Ilia Topuria\u2019s team contradicted Dana White\u2019s recent claims about an imminent comeback. Ilia Topuria suffered one of the biggest upset defeats in UFC history earlier this year against Justin Gaethje. In his first lightweight title defense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[287,299,581,219,759,7031,2736,1693,42,680],"class_list":["post-28227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fighters","tag-claims","tag-coach","tag-comeback","tag-dana","tag-ilia","tag-imminent","tag-shuts","tag-topurias","tag-ufc","tag-whites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}