Anaheim, CA — There’s a new sheriff in town in the UFC‘s featherweight division following UFC 298 on Saturday, and it’s “El Matador” Ilia Topuria.
Topuria’s thunderous knockout of Alexander Volkanovski, one of the greatest of all time at 145lbs, shocked many, but clearly not Topuria himself. The end came in the second round when a perfectly placed right hook floored Australia’s Volkanovski.
“I don’t need the judges. When I’m fighting they can go and take the time to break and rest a little bit,” new champ Topuria (15-0) exclaimed after the fight, before admitting to doing some adjusting in the opening round. “He surprised me a little bit. It took a little bit of time to study him, and I had to knock him out in the second round.”
“I was just waiting to find my timing,” Topuria later added.
Given his status as a long serving champ with multiple title defenses to his name, talk of a rematch is only natural when it comes to Volkanovski. On the flip side, he’s been knocked out twice in six months, so time off and maybe a rebound fight does make a certain amount of sense. Topuria himself seemed a little on the fence about running it back.
“So he’s such a good person, you know? To be honest at this point I’m like ‘okay I’m going to give him the rematch because he’s a good person.’ But at the same time, it’s time to move on. It’s time to clean up a little bit, the division. It’s time for the new generation to have new challengers, new faces. I will be looking for that, but to be honest, my job is to fight. Whoever they tell me I have to face and fight next, I’ll be there. That’s it.”
When it comes to new challengers, however, Topuria was dismissive of one obvious choice: fellow undefeated featherweight Movsar Evloev.
“Look Movsar is a good fight for me. I would love to fight him,” said Topuria. “But the guy has eight fights in the UFC, eight decisions. Zero submissions, zero knockouts. From eight decisions, four split decisions. Man, come on. He needs to finish someone. Maybe they can find someone for him in his hometown, I don’t know. Maybe he can fight with his dad or something and finish him.”
“He needs to finish someone, you know? The record he has right now, yeah it seems nice, he’s undefeated. But the guy didn’t finish anyone. He needs to do something.”
That leaves the future a bit up in the air, though ultimately it will be for the UFC to decide. One option, however, would have Topuria jump at a rematch with Volkanovski.
“If the UFC offers me to bring the UFC to Spain and do the rematch with Volkanovski, I’m in. Let’s go, let’s do it. No f*cking problem.”
Watch the full UFC 298 post-fight press conference with Ilia Topuria above.
