Ilia Topuria lays out a plan to beat Charles Oliveira, Paddy Pimblett, Islam Mahkachev - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Six months ago, shortly before he agreed to vacate the UFC's featherweight championship, Ilia Topuria made a shocking declaration.

«I'm 27 [years old], and I hope to be out by 30,» Topuria said in Spanish on the El Partidazo de COPE podcast.

Topuria (16-0), now 28, is competing at the highest level in the world (currently ranked No. 2 on ESPN's pound-for-pound list) and is fast-becoming one of the sport's biggest stars. Retirement would seem to be the furthest thing from his mind.

And it is.

Topuria, who will look to become a two-weight champion on Saturday when he faces Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title at UFC 317 in Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV; prelims beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+/Disney+), said this week that those retirement comments from December were heavily influenced by the drastic amount of weight he had to cut to make the featherweight limit of 145 pounds.

«I was struggling a lot with the weight cut, and it was making me start to hate the entire sport,» Topuria told ESPN. «So yeah, I've changed my mind on that. Those [extra] 10 pounds gave me life.»

But when pressed to look into the future of his career, Topuria and his team are quick to say there still might be only a couple of years left. The difference between now and six months ago is that it has nothing to do with weight and everything to do with opportunity. Topuria, one of only two fighters under 30 on ESPN's pound-for-pound list, has been so good and so ambitious at a young age, there isn't that much left for him to chase if he's successful at UFC 317.

As a sort of fun, sort of serious exercise, ESPN asked Topuria to map out his ideal career path through January 2027, the month in which he'll turn 30. Here are some of