UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria’s coach Jorge Climent has called for the star to fight lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev next after ‘El Matador’ successfully made his first title defense by KO’ing Max Holloway at UFC 308 this past weekend in Abu Dhabi.
“Look, I see Islam in the last fight with Volk he caught him with the kick, but if you see his [first] fight with Volk, he suffered and… I think it’s a good fight for Ilia,” Climent told Submission Radio.
“Islam, I think, is the fight. I think if he makes this at 27 years [old], he fights Volk, he fights Holloway, now Islam. If he finishes him [by submission], not knock him down because the great thing is to go in the place or speciality of his opponent.
“If he can finish Islam. Wow. I think this is very, very epic.”
With all that being said, Climent acknowledges that a rematch with Volkanovski may come first, and he expects that to take place in Spain.
“Ilia wants to fight in Spain, you know, because here, now we have a lot of fans. We are talking about this a lot of time.
“Asking for UFC [to] come to Spain and the other day Dana White said this year they’re going to come here. I don’t know when they going to do it, but I think his idea is do it here “
“I think Volk in a rematch is going to be more dangerous than the first time, because I think when he took the fight, it’s not the moment for a fight with Ilia.
“If I’m his coach, I tell Volk that moment is not the right moment. You have a KO [loss]. Only two months [before]… I think he has the time to recover, to think and do a better strategy with Ilia.”