“If you beat a legend and another legend and another legend, you become a legend.” With these words, the CEO of the UFC, Dana White, responded to the question asked by this newspaper about the status in which Ilia Topuria is established after knocking out Max Holloway last weekend at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi.
The Spanish champion defended his featherweight title for the first time against the Hawaiian and kept his promise to the millimeter: it was not only about winning, it was necessary to turn off the lights for someone who in 29 fights in the UFC no one had achieved. But for Topuria nothing is impossible, quite the contrary.
After his spectacular victory, numerous more than authoritative voices came out in a rush to credit the unprecedented feat perpetrated by the monarch of the featherweight division. Thus, Holloway himself was quick to recognize the merit of this triumph for Topuria.
«Topuria told me that I am a legend and that I was an inspiration for him. He’s a great guy, he was just kind. He saw my career and took a lot of inspiration. It’s a media game and he knows how to play it, but other than that he’s a great guy. Sometimes you get a highlight and other times you are the highlight. Congratulations to El Matador“said the legendary fighter.
But there is much more. Volkanovski himself, from whom Topuria took the title in February, got into the octagon to try to close that pending rematch. He had nothing but good words. «Ilia, congratulations, it was impressive. See you wherever, Madrid, Sydney… See you at the beginning of next year, friend,” launched the Australian idol.
Dustin Poirier, who was interim lightweight champion and the man who beat Conor McGregor twice, also spoke out about it. «I am more than impressed. I’m blown away, man. It’s not that I didn’t think it could happen, of course it could happen… I just didn’t think it would happen. “You saw him standing in the octagon, with that rose in his hand… It’s time to give him his flowers because he is everything he said he was,” he noted.
Even the current lightweight monarch, Islam Makhachev, with whom Topuria has already had several exchanges of words to sell this fight, wanted to recognize the merit of the Spanish champion. «Congratulations, champion. It was incredible”wrote. Something to which the former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, also considered a star on the other side of the pond, added: “He’s a little Alex Pereira,” in reference to the current light heavyweight champion, who was also a former UFC bantamweight champion. medium weight.
Another legendary fighter like Kamaru Usman, one of the best of all time in the UFC welterweight, even demanded a fight between Ilia Topuria and Conor McGregor at the Santiago Bernabéu, trusting that the Spaniard could remain a top superstar to the Irish.
What all this leaves us with is a very clear conclusion.: Topuria is blessed to sit at the table of the sport’s greatest legends in recent times. At only 27 years old, and with a long way to go, the Spanish champion has a hopeful horizon to become one of the greatest legends that has ever existed in mixed martial arts.
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