Las Vegas, NV — It was something of a throwback fight Saturday night at UFC 264 when Ilia Topuria met Ryan Hall.
Hall, a jiu-jitsu ace and more of a single-discipline fighter, executed roll after roll, looking to lock up one of Topuria’s legs. But Georgia’s Topuria was never in any real danger. And when he did go to the ground, it was on his terms, to put Hall away with punches.
The win saw Topuria become the first to defeat Ryan Hall. He kept his own perfect record intact in the process, improving to 11-0.
“I mentioned this in the past, where I grew up, where I trained, we have 30 black belts,” Topuria told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight, explaining why he was undaunted by going up against such a dangerous submission fighter. “So when we do sparring, I’m prepared for this. I have the openings, because I’ve seen it.”
“I accepted this fight because I knew I could beat him,” added the 24-year old. With so many training partners at his disposal, “I’ve seen this look before, it’s nothing new.”
When it comes to what, or more accurately who, might come next for Topuria, “there’s no one special, there’s no one worth mentioning,” he said. “It could be number fifteen, number eight, whatever. I’m here to be number one, and that’s my goal, to be the number one guy.”
Topuria’s addition to the Conor McGregor-Dustin Poriier 3 card is something the featherweight was happy with. “I’m very happy to be on this big card, but I know deep down, one day I’m going to be headlining big cards like this,” Topuria predicted. “I’m going to be the main event.”
With three wins inside the octagon now, “as far as a title run, getting to the belt, we’ll say in a about two to three fights. Like I said before, I’m not looking behind me, I’m looking at the numbers above me in order to go up towards the title.”
Watch the full UFC 264 post-fight press scrum above.
