Unpopular opinion, one title defense isn't enough to guarantee a title shot at the weight class, above.

Don't compare Ilia and Conor's rise, Conor was a PPV star. He sold 1.2 million ppv+ for 3 cards straight before getting an immediate shot at LW. Whether y'all like it or not that was the justification for Conor skipping the whole line. Ilia isn't a PPV star. The last "PPV star" we had in the modern era was Alex Periera (and even he doesn't compare to Conor). Don't compare him to Volk, Volk was p4p #1 a dominate champ with 4 title defenses. He had every right for a lw shot. And I don't think fans opinions should matter, but the same people that were shitting on Islam for fighting "just a FW" (mind you they were talking about VOLK). Are now shitting on Islam for wanting Ilia to have 1 fight against a lw contender. Mark my words if this fight happens these same cretins will call Ilia "just another FW" and say islam should fight Arman. An Ideal timeline would be Ilia vs Arman at 316 or 317, winner fights Islam end of the year, mean time Islam rematches Oliveria (sorry Oliveria fan bias). submitted by /u/Asleep_Hurry_9033 [link] [comments]