Eight months after capturing the UFC featherweight crown, Ilia Topuria has managed to find himself linked to champions in three of the surrounding weight classes — not to mention the most successful crossover star in the history of the sport.
On the plus side is Merab Dvalishvili, Topuria’s fellow Georgian and good friend who just a month ago captured the bantamweight title, adding to a banner sports year for the small Eastern European republic.
No beef there; not even a hint of it.
Can’t say the same for new welterweight champ Belal Muhammad, lightweight king Islam Makhachev or the infamous Conor McGregor — who despite more than three years of inactivity maintains a strong foothold in modern MMA conversations.
It’s not that Topuria (15-0, 13 finishes) isn’t focused on Saturday’s first defense of his 145-pound championship against the great Max Holloway at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
As Topuria sees it, he is entrenched seemingly in everyone’s story primarily because others invite him into it.
“They all talk about me,” Topuria recently told The Post via video call from Abu Dhabi. “Conor, he came to Spain [where I live and train] because he knows that the sport is growing a lot in Spain. He [brought] his [Bare Knuckle FC] event there, and he’s been talking a lot about me in the Spanish media. He’s been mentioning my name. Then I said something about to move up in the lightweight division, and Belal came out, and he said something like, If you want a street fight, I’m gonna street fight you; something like that.
“I’m like, Listen, kid, I’m not even talking about you. I didn’t mention your name anywhere. Why are you talking about me? And now, ‘I’m gonna slap you around.’ Who did you slap? What makes you think that you’re gonna slap me around, or I’m gonna let you slap me? I’m gonna kill you right when I’m gonna see you. I’m gonna slap you. Shut up, man.”
In the case of Makhachev, little verbal sparring has yet to go down, but Topuria has made clear his desire to chase big goals, including adding a second title at 155 pounds just as McGregor had done eight years ago.
But any hopes of superfights with the champions in the next two heaviest weight classes or even the remote potential for a McGregor duel are swept right off the table if Topuria can’t get the job done against Holloway, himself a former lord of the featherweights from 2017-19 who also won the honorary BMF belt with a potential knockout of the year against Justin Gaethje at lightweight in April.
Holloway-Gaethje left jaws agape after Holloway pointed and called for the two to throw hands in the center of the cage with 10 seconds to go, with born entertainer Gaethje obliging before winding up unconscious before the horn.
Observers noticed Topuria’s reaction, which could plausibly be read as stunned.
The champ, however, will only cop to being “impressed” with the finish and what it might mean for him.
“I was impressed, and at the same time, I was very happy because, after that knockout, my thought process was, I have a new challenger. I have a new opponent,” Topuria explains,” because, if he wouldn’t get that knockout, I was like, He doesn’t deserve a title shot.”
The remaining 24 minutes and change of that fight isn’t as widely discussed, but most consider it to be among the most entertaining of the year.
Don’t count on Topuria’s vote in that category.
“The Justin Gaethje [fight] was, I don’t know, just a bar fight,” says a dismissive Topuria. “And [Holloway] was lucky that he got that knockout because imagine that fight ending without the knockout: What would you say? It was a normal fight. You wouldn’t even mention the fight of the year, the knockout of the year, anything like that. You wouldn’t be in that kind of conversation. Never, because it was a normal fight between two fighters.”
Seeing as Topuria thinks Holloway (26-7, 14 finishes) saved the best for last, he’s now daring his opponent to plant feet off the jump and swing until someone goes down, with the dual Georgian-Spanish citizen aspiring to one of the fastest finishes in UFC history.
Given that Topuria boasts about having impressive wrestling and ground skills — in addition to the power-packed striking arsenal that knocked out Alexander Volkanovski for the title in February, ending one of the longest reigns of any champion in UFC history — it’s fair to wonder if putting an entire training camp and all his championship eggs in one furious, violent basket is a welcome plan from his coaches.
Well, they are, says the champ.
“They love it because they know that, in the moment, when Max will stay in the middle and start exchanging punches with me, I’m going to take his lights out,” Topuria assures. “They know that they see me every day in the training sessions, so they know that better than many people.”
Such promises in the fight game don’t always come to pass
Sometimes, a gentlemen’s agreement to keep a fight standing goes out the window.
Sometimes, it’s all a ploy to begin with.
But if Topuria is selling wolf tickets, he’s doing so while fully guaranteeing that’s what will happen.
“Hundred percent, I will do that,” Topuria said. “I will point to the ground, and I will stay in the middle of the octagon. And if you want to make me make some steps back, you have to go to the war. And till this date, I’m undefeated in every war I had.”
