UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria continues to fan the flames of a potential rivalry with lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev.
Considerable uncertainty surrounds Topuria's next assignment. While the likes of Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes target his 145-pound gold, the Spaniard has made clear his goal of pursuing two-division glory.
With that, talk of a clash with Makhachev continues to float around the mixed martial arts community and both men have frequently addressed it during interviews.
During a recent appearance on the Full Send Podcast, Topuria no doubt added further heat to the back and forth by taking aim at Makhachev and his fellow Dagestani fighters.
According to "El Matador," fighters from the region flounder if they can't establish their dominance early on in fights.
None of them have special cardio and stamina. The way they do it, if you fight any of them, the thing they need when they go inside the Octagon, in the first contact, they want to feel like they’ve dominated you," Topuria said. "They start to build their confidence off that. It’s like, 'I can dominate you, maybe you escape, and we strike again, but I feel like I’m stronger than you.'
If they feel like in the first contact in the first round that they can’t control you and it’s very competitive, then their head goes down.," Topuria continued. "This is what they try to do, to beat you in the early rounds, that they can dominate you, that they are stronger than you. But when they realize that it’s not like that, most of the time, they lose those kinds of fights. All of the competitive fights they lose — all of them.
While some might suggest that Umar Nurmagomedov's five-round defeat to Merab Dvalishvili last month supports Topuria's hypothesis, the bantamweight contender's brother found a different outcome in his January outing. Usman Nurmagomedov got the better of Irish challenger Paul Hughes in their competitive main event title fight at PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai.
It remains to be seen whether Topuria will get the chance to prove his remarks right against Makhachev this year or be made to defend his featherweight belt for a second time.