Ilia Topuria will only fight Max Holloway under one condition
Ilia Topuria is down to fight Max Holloway, but in order for the two to scrap, he has one condition.
Topuria appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and he made it clear during his appearance that he wants both his title and Holloway’s BMF title up for grabs.
“Without the BMF belt, I don’t want him at all,” said Topuria .
If Holloway’s BMF championship isn’t part of the plans, then Topuria said he’ll just go a different route all together and run things back with Alexander Volkanovski, who Topuria knocked out in February at UFC 298 to win his 145 pound title.
“If not, I’m going to fight with Volk for the rematch,” Topuria said. “But because he has that belt, I’m excited about that. That’s why I want him. He’s been saying, ‘Right now I have a lot of options.’ He doesn’t have any options. Right now I’m the champion. I choose the date, I choose the place. He just has to be ready and he has to wait for the call. Whenever I want him, he has to be ready.”
According to the featherweight champ, him and Holloway have some unfinished business as he claims the UFC wanted the two to fight prior to Topuria winning the title.
“Actually, the UFC saved him for this moment,” Topuria told Helwani. “I asked for Max before the Volkanovski fight. I was asking for him all the time. ‘I want to fight him, I want to fight him.’ Finally, they gave me Volkanovski because they hid him for this moment.”
Holloway looked incredible at UFC 300 as he dominated Justin Gaethje before knocking him with one second left and if anyone thought Topuria might be afraid of Holloway after that performance, Topuria wants you know that you thought wrong.
“Max Holloway, he’s next. He can say whatever he wants to say — that I’m running and he’s the bull and this and that. Come on, man. Just bring the same energy you had in the last 10 seconds, but bring it in the first 10 seconds, and we’ll see what’s going to happen. Let’s bang and we’ll see what’s going to happen. I know I will be the first one to take his lights out. I know that I’m way better than him everywhere. I can do with him whatever I want to do. I can ask him, ‘How do you want me to finish you? You want me to knock you out? You want me to submit you? What do you want me to do?’”
There is obviously no fight set in stone for Topuria, but Volkanovski and Holloway are the two likely opponents next for the champ and in the video above, MyMMANews recaps the comments from Ilia Topuria and why there’s a case for both Volkanovski and Holloway to be next.
Also, there is no exact date or location for Topuria’s next fight, but Topuria has been hinting at a September return at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
