At UFC 298, we witnessed a passing of the guard at the 145-pound bracket. Ilia Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in a brutal fashion to win the belt in a division once ruled by Conor McGregor. As a result, he had only one target on his mind during the post-fight interview. ‘
El Matador’ called out Conor McGregor for a fight in Spain at the Santiago Bernabeu. According to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s former coach, there is only one condition that might help materialize this fight.
Javier Mendez is the coach behind fighters like Umar Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and most importantly, Khabib Nurmagomedov. In a recent episode of his ‘Javier Mendez Podcas,t’ he shared his thoughts on what it would take for McGregor to agree to a fight with Topuria, saying,
“Yeah, Conor is big and also Topuria has to do one thing to make it a big deal. Get Conor’s attention, that is it. He can want it all he wants, but if Conor gets the idea that he wants this guy, then it’s on. It will be the biggest payday he will ever make. Can he beat Conor? Absolutely. That fight could work out if Conor wanted it, not if Topuria wanted it. Everyone wants to fight Conor. Even the heavyweights will want to fight him.”
Mendez went on to add that as things stand, Topuria is not an exciting enough name for McGregor. However, McGregor might take note if ‘El Matador’ gets a few interesting title defenses under his name.
Mendez also insisted that he believes that the UFC will not award Topuria with a Conor McGregor fight immediately after winning the belt.
Will Ilia Topuria face Max Holloway while aiming for Conor McGregor?
Unfortunately for Topuria, he has no say in who his next opponent might be. After a stellar performance at UFC 300, Max Holloway has most certainly punched his ticket to a title shot at 145 pounds. Hence, in all likelihood, Topuria’s next fight will be a title defense against Max Holloway.
If ‘El Matador’ were to emerge victorious from that matchup, then Topuria might turn a few heads, including that of Conor McGregor.
Yet, as he gets older, Topuria’s activity in the UFC is shrinking by the day and his window to get a Conor McGregor fight appears to be diminishing.
