Undefeated UFC featherweight contender Ilia Topuria wasn’t impressed by Volkanovski’s win at UFC 290.
Despite his dominance at 145 pounds that he further solidified at UFC 290 with his win over Yair Rodriguez, there is one clear contender that everyone wants to see the champion Alexander Volkanovski face.
Though a rematch with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev would undoubtedly be one of the biggest fights of the year, there’s an undefeated contender at featherweight that poses a dangerous threat to Alexander Volkanovski’s reign.
Ilia Topuria has produced some flawless performances in the UFC, including his dominant victories over Bryce Mitchell and Josh Emmett.
After being in attendance for International Fight Week, Ilia Topuria spoke in a quick interview with Inside Fighting about his thoughts on the main event.
“He had a good performance, nothing special. I don’t know, he did a good fight” Topuria said. “No, I wasn’t impressed. No, I’m not impressed by him, the world can be impressed with him but I’m not and I’m gonna show this to everyone in December hopefully.”
Ilia Topuria Gives A Warning To Alexander Volkanovski After UFC 290
With plans to face Alexander Volkanovski before the end of the year, Ilia Topuria is extremely confident in his own abilities.
Not only did the Spanish-Georgian state that he can finish the fight at any moment however he wants, he dismissed the conversation of Volkanovski and José Aldo being the greatest featherweights of all time by making his own case.
Alexander Volkanovski added extra fuel to the fire during his fight week interviews on International Fight Week, stating that because of wanting to sell the fight, he couldn’t give his true thoughts on Topuria as a challenger.
Making reference to the fact that he has seen holes in the contender’s game that he can exploit, Volkanovski vs. Topuria would be high up on the list of most-anticipated fights for the remainder of 2023.
In his interview Ilia Topuria spoke about the potential clash, once again demonstrating his supreme confidence:
“It’s what I hope will happen yes. I can finish him however I want in the first round, if I want to submit him I’m going to submit him, if I want to knock him out I’m going to knock him out.” Topuria continued. “I’m the greatest featherweight of all time, in front of you right now.”
To close out the interview, he issued a statement to Alexander “The Great”
“Prepare well my friend, something special is coming for you, you’ll be impressed once you gonna feel real power.”