In the United States, Ilia Topuria is not generally considered a favorite for the UFC featherweight world title fight against Max Holloway, which will take place tonight at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. It is not something new for the Spanish champion, who has had to break down the barriers of thought of those fans who saw his every step as impossible, as happened last February against Volkanovksi. But all that worries Topuria very little. AND The day has come to continue expanding your legacyto continue reaffirming mixed martial arts as the fashionable sport in our country. He assures that he comes to the stadium to collect the belt, that the fight has already been won weeks before, in training.
– Ilia, there is very little time left for you to enter the octagon. What version are we going to find of you in relation to the one we saw when you won the belt against Alexander Volkanovski? What have you improved?
– In every fight I have, I acquire new skills, new techniques, I try to implement new things, I have always shown that I am improving and this time it will not be different. I’m going to look much more professional than the last time. I won’t have to show my patience because the fight will end much sooner than many think. You are going to see a very aggressive version of Ilia.
– You challenged Holloway to trade from the beginning. How attentive are we going to have to be in the first ten seconds of the fight?
– Pay attention, if he stands in the middle of the octagon, you will see the ten most interesting seconds in the history of the UFC and mixed martial arts. They are going to be explosive.
– What situation has generated more pressure for you to win the belt or defend it?
– Neither of them, really, I enjoy it. I can’t feel pressure, the only pressure is from cutting weight. It amuses me to fight, to have everyone supporting me, sharing my experience. In the old days people went to war and didn’t know if they were going to come home, I don’t have any of those fears. I’m going to go in and do what I like the most. I’m going to fight Max Holloway, a guy who is not known for doing a lot of damage, he has no KO power, for me it was much more dangerous to be in front of Josh Emmett for 25 minutes, who didn’t know which hand he could use to turn off the lights. . He had that power. On the other hand, with Max I don’t feel that, he is a high-volume fighter, who tends to tire his opponents, but that is not going to be the case for me. I’m not prepared to fight 5 rounds, I’m prepared to fight 10, 15 or 20 if you want.
– What has changed compared to his fight against Volkanovski is the place where you stay. It is no longer the fighters’ hotel, you have rented a large house.
– That’s right, we are all concentrated in our house, much more comfortable, with the experiences I have been acquiring, this is how it works best for me.
– Ilia, if you win the fight, any name that you have already thought of for the next fight? Many fronts have been opened to you.
– I already won, Álvaro, I already won. It’s not if I win, the victory is already mine. Medals are earned in training, in competition one goes to collect them. I’m going to collect what’s mine this Saturday. Before I used to give more names, but I have realized that it doesn’t work that way, I can tell you with great confidence about myself, but I don’t know how the circumstances are going to develop in the divisions. Whoever the UFC tells me I have to face, I will be there.
Conor McGregor is an idiot and sick in the head. They have crushed him in three different divisions
Ilia Topuria
UFC featherweight champion
– What is surprising in Spain is the perception they have of combat in the United States and the rest of the world. Of 24 UFC fighters consulted, 20 think that the favorite is Max Holloway. Is it something that motivates you?
– I never cared, they never gave me a favorite, I was always the novelty. In Spain, at the beginning, when I said I was going to join the UFC, they said I was crazy. People have already been able to believe it. Now the same thing is happening but in the rest of the world. They said how he is going to beat Volkanovski and I go and beat him. And now with Holloway, they don’t realize it’s even easier. He has nothing to do, he’s screwed.
– Let’s talk about Conor McGregor, who continues to make references to you publicly. The last thing he said was that he was a puppy. What do you think about it?
– The nickname I give him is that he is a ‘fake fighter’, he always pretends to fight. Dustin Poirier has crushed him, Nate Díaz beat him twice, Khabib humiliated him, Floyd Mayweather at 50 years old gave him a boxing ‘masterclass’. And he calls me names? I am undefeated, what are you talking about. They have beaten him in all divisions. Let him shut up and do his job as a promoter. He tries to get on the boat to stay in the conversation, but he’s done for. He has to accept the moment in which he is disappearing from the sport. If he had a kind personality, people would have a different perception towards him. How he acted with everyone works in his favor. He’s an idiot, he’s sick in the head.
– If everything goes its way, you keep your belt, go up to the weight immediately above, the lightweight, and win, you could end up trying for a hypothetical UFC triple crown at welterweight. There is Belal Muhammad, with whom you have already had some beef.
-If Belal remains champion, it would be a cake walk for me to go up and win the welterweight title. It’s a package, it’s very bad. He is a champion who has not finished anyone, he has not had a single knockdown. This morning I woke up and said if I see him I’m going to slap him, they have a gangster attitude and they’re clowns. They don’t tell you who is really capable of doing something. They bark and bark.
– Good luck this Saturday. Spain is pending.
– Let’s collect one more victory. The victory is ours.
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