Ilia Topuria grabbed the UFC featherweight title from Alexander Volkanovski in just his seventh fight for the promotion. He now boasts a perfect 15-0 record and will defend the belt for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on October 26, 2024.
Many looked past Topuria as an overconfident prospect ahead of the Volkanovski fight because he updated his record and status as the UFC featherweight kingpin on social media beforehand. However, he knocked out the champion in the second and silenced all the doubters.
"El Matador" is similarly sure about being the first fighter to knock out Holloway, that too in the first. He also claims "Blessed" to be an easier matchup for him than Volkanovski...
Ilia Topuria Predicts 'Completely Masterpiece' Performance Against Max Holloway At UFC 308
Topuria discussed his first title defense in an interview on the official MMA Junkie YouTube channel recently. He outright rejected fans who rank Holloway's striking highly and proclaimed himself to be better in all areas.
I feel like I'm way better than him everywhere. Simple like that. It's like, it's going to be a completely masterpiece, you will see, you will see. I will knock him out in the first round, there's no doubts about that. It's going to be even much easier than with Volkanovski because I consider that Volkanovski was like, a way difficult matchup for me and he proved it right? He beat the guy three times.
"El Matador" also considers Volkanovski to be a much harder matchup for him than Holloway. "The Great" beat Holloway thrice, and a victory over him could be the source of Topuria's high confidence.
Topuria added that Holloway's been more vocal than usual with him due to fear. He also advised the challenger to avoid the wild swinging exchanges toward the end of rounds as it would make it easier for the champ to get a KO victory.
The UFC featherweight champion highlighted that he knocked out Volkanovski in seven minutes, unlike Holloway who's had 75 minutes to do so.