Topuria stated that Makhachev is afraid of him

"He's afraid. Of course he's afraid of me. As usual, it's an easy fight until they put your name on the contract. We all know - if it was that easy, and if I was small like he says, he'd have shared the octagon with me by now. There's a reason why he doesn't want that, and I understand him. So that's fine. Khabib probably warned him against fighting me, and Khabib doesn't give bad advice."