Ilia Topuria rose to the top of the featherweight division when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in style to win his first UFC belt. Since then he has his eyes on the biggest money fight in all of MMA, Conor McGregor. While Topuria thinks talking trash to Conor McGregor might ultimately land him the fight, Alexander Volkanovski thinks otherwise.
In a recent interview with Fox Sports Australia, Volkanovski slammed the new champion for the approach he was taking.
Since becoming a champion, Topuria has demanded that the UFC come to Spain for an event where he would headline against McGregor. ‘El Matador’ has made such demands without having a single title defense under his name. This irked the former champion who said,
“[Topuria] doesn’t want to fight any of the top guys… what he’s doing… I guarantee you the UFC aren’t happy with it. Especially him saying he doesn’t want to fight anyone but Conor McGregor. Cmon mate, f***ing stay in your lane.”
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Topuria’s approach is contrary to what Volkanovski adopted as a champion and what he believes champions should be doing.
As a champion, ‘The Great’ was extremely active and took on all the challengers that came his way. He also believes that this is the approach all champions should adopt and praised the likes of Alex Pereira for following the same.
It is highly unlikely that we will ever see Conor McGregor fight at 145-pounds again. Therefore, Topuria’s lofty ambitions of a fight with McGregor is something that is just wasting a lot of precious time that he could be using to defend his title against worthy opponents.
Will Volk fight Topuria for another shot at the title?
The knockout loss against Topuria was Volk’s second brutal knockout loss in less than six months. He had previously been put down by surprising headkick by Iskam Makhachev.
Following these losses, the former featherweight champion had stated that he would take some much needed time away from the sport for his mind and body to recover.
However, in that time, Max Holloway established himself as a worthy title contender with a jaw-dropping knockout win over Justin Gaethje.
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And since securing that BMF title, the Hawaiian fighter has been on Topuria’s radar.
At this point in time, it seems as though the UFC is leaning towards booking a fight between Holloway and Topuria. Unfortunately, a rumoured date or venue for the same is not known at this point in time. So, Volk, despite all his greatness will have to wait.
This isn’t exactly a back of the line scenario but it still isn’t the top of the line that Volk has been used to.
