It is well known that while Ilia Topuria faces a rivalry, His winning mentality allows him to be thinking about the next. It already happened before beating Alexander Volkanovski to become UFC champion last February. In the last massive meeting with the media, Topuria was already studying his next great challenge: Conor McGregor at the Santiago Bernabéu, he said, something that will be difficult to achieve.
This situation was repeated weeks before his first title defense against Max Holloway. The Hispanic-Georgian champion already began working on his next big objective, when he had not yet contested his fight against the Hawaiian. In an exclusive interview with ABC, Topuria assured that the next challenge was Islam Makhachevthe UFC lightweight champion, a division above featherweight, in which he is the monarch. But not only that: he also stated that his goal is to win the triple crown in the American league, which would imply a fight against the welterweight champion.
In a higher division, Topuria had generated a lot of expectation, and some stars like Dustin Poirier asked that the Spanish-Georgian champion was his next rival. However, at welterweight no one had yet commented on his statements. Now, one of the great contenders has done it, Shavkat Rackhmonov, who, in fact, was going to fight for the welterweight title in December against Belal Muhammad, before the champion left the fight due to an injury.
Montage published by Rackhmonov on Instagram
The Kazakh, in addition, wanted to enter the debate with some forceful statements: «I have heard that Topuria wants to fight against me. I can fight him with one hand. Rackhmonov’s comment is accompanied by a face of laughter and a montage in which the Kazakh comes out subduing the Spanish-Georgian champion.
The truth is that this rivalry seems very far, at this moment, from being able to be resolved above the octagon, since they are two weight categories above the one in which Topuria is champion. Although, in this UFC business, you never know.
#wouldbe #UFC #champion #claims #beat #Ilia #Topuria #hand
