The featherweight challenger Ilia Topuria has declared himself as the champion on his Instagram bio, making a statement ahead of the fight against longtime champion Alexander Volkanovski. The reason behind his actions is to seemingly get into the mind of his opponent and play psychologically before the big battle at UFC 298.
Topuria will face dominant champion Alexander Volkanovski in an upcoming featherweight world title bout at UFC 298, which is scheduled for February 18, 2024, at Honda Center, Anaheim, California, United States. While no fighter in this weight class has ever defeated ‘The Great,’ Topuria is more confident in his abilities.
The Spanish fighter stands at 14-0 in his MMA career. Despite this, he revised his score to 15-0 and added ‘world champion’ to his Instagram account, indicating that he is the division’s new champion.
Playing mentally with the opponent is an important aspect of the sport, and ‘El Matador’ looks to be making good use of it. However, it is not only the mind games, Topuria is leaving no stone unturned in his preparation before the title fight.
Ilia Topuria is laying the groundwork to beat Alexander Volkanovski
‘El Matador’ has been relentlessly focusing on harnessing his octagon skills to beat Volkanovski and take the title. Not only this, but he has also been studying his opponent’s training schedule and fighting approach.
During a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, the 26-year-old fighter revealed his training tactics. He expressed that he watches Volkanovski’s training videos and fights to understand his moves.
Moreover, Topuria is quite clear that ‘The Great’ will be aiming to attack his legs, crediting his good cardio work. He further added how he plans to put pressure to destroy and take advantage over his opponent’s cardio skills. He said,
“I watched everything… He doesn’t stand a chance; he has zero opportunity. I don’t see any holes, but I can tell how he attacks.”
Spoke with @Topuriailia who says it’s been studying Alexander Volkanovski for weeks, expects to put a masterpiece and face one of the easier fights of his career against the featherweight champion in #UFC298
Via @ESPNDeportes https://t.co/nYJogqgqOO pic.twitter.com/Z3Hvba1NYe
— Carlos Contreras Legaspi (@CCLegaspi) December 8, 2023
Further, in the interview, he expressed that his roadmap is all about fiercely attacking and defending the blows. Topuria is also looking forward to using his authentic MMA skills while maintaining his patience at the same time.
As per him, patience will help him get an edge over any opening left unguarded by Volkanovski with minimum effort. However, it remains to be seen how the fight turns out.
