{"id":1547,"date":"2023-06-25T17:14:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T16:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=1547"},"modified":"2023-06-27T19:25:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T18:25:12","slug":"ilya-topuria-%f0%9f%8e%99%ef%b8%8f-it-makes-sense-that-i-would-be-the-next-fighter-to-fight-for-the-title-and-i-dont-know-what-volkanovskis-situation-i-can-wait-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/ilya-topuria-%f0%9f%8e%99%ef%b8%8f-it-makes-sense-that-i-would-be-the-next-fighter-to-fight-for-the-title-and-i-dont-know-what-volkanovskis-situation-i-can-wait-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Topuria \ud83c\udf99\ufe0f \u201cIt makes sense that I would be the next fighter to fight for the title and I don&#8217;t know what Volkanovski&#8217;s situation I can wait for"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ilya Topuria \ud83c\udf99\ufe0f \u201cIt makes sense to be the next fighter to fight for the title. I don\u2019t know what Volkanovski\u2019s situation is, if he\u2019s busy or not, but I can wait, I have no problem. If they offer me to fight Max Holloway in Spain, I will accept. If nothing happens Either way, I&#8217;ll wait for my title fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u2019m the next guy\u2019: Ilia Topuria confident of victory at UFC Jacksonville, eyes title fight with Alex Volkanovski.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_46788\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lzHhiNFMdVQ?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Surging featherweight contender Ilia Topuria gets the main event spotlight this weekend at UFC Jacksonville, and the in-form 145er is clearly confident of victory in Florida.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chatting to the press during media day ahead of the event, he spoke about his matchup with fellow featherweight contender Josh Emmett, and said that he has his opponent\u2019s number in all areas.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_63110\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CuN2kRgh8vs?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI just have to be worried about his hooks, nothing else,\u201d he said, hinting at Emmett\u2019s prodigious one-shot knockout power.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI couldn\u2019t care less about his wrestling.., or his ground game, even his boxing. He has to be worried about my boxing, my wrestling, my grappling \u2013 about everything. So I can\u2019t wait to go inside the cage and get another win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">German-born, Spanish-based and Georgian in heritage, Topuria has an unblemished 13-0 record, including five straight wins in the UFC. His last four outings all finished inside two rounds, including a hat-trick of crushing knockouts as he finished Damon Jackson, Ryan Hall and Jai Herbert (at lightweight) in devastating fashion. His most recent outing saw him submit grappling specialist Bryce Mitchell at UFC 282.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/FzeW1AOWwAEhi3P?format=jpg&amp;name=large\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now ranked ninth in the UFC\u2019s official featherweight rankings, Topuria faces No. 5-ranked Emmett in his first UFC main event. It\u2019s an opportunity to claim a big win against top-drawer opposition, but, regardless of his ranking position, Topuria believes he\u2019s the top contender in the division already.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI\u2019m the next guy in line,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWho deserves more than me to fight for the title? No one else. So I\u2019m the next guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Topuria plans to underline that claim with a statement finish on Saturday night in Jacksonville, and he followed up his confident statements with a bold prediction for the matchup.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cSame as always. I\u2019m gonna finish him in the first round.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI\u2019m not overlooking anyone. Never, ever. It\u2019s like I\u2019m just confident about all the work I\u2019m doing, how hard I work. I know everything I\u2019m doing in all my training camps. It\u2019s like the confidence doesn\u2019t come from the air, you know? I work really hard and I know that I\u2019m better than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The featherweight title will be contested next month at UFC 290, as defending champion Alexander Volkanovski looks to unify the belts when he takes on Mexico\u2019s interim champion Yair Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Topuria already has his sights set on a title fight, and offered a preference on who he\u2019d like to face for the title, saying he wanted to face long-reigning champ Volkanovski, rather than current interim champ Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cOf course, it\u2019s going to be a little bit bigger to beat someone who is pound-for-pound number one, and who defended the title so many times. It\u2019s going to be bigger than if Yair beats him and I beat Yair, because Yair lost a lot of fights with a lot of ranked guys with Max Holloway, with Frankie Edgar. He lost a lot of fights. So I prefer to fight with Alex and take the win against him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Whether he gets that chance will depend firstly on how things go on Saturday night. But, if Topuria can produce anything to match his last four Octagon appearances, calls for a Topuria title shot will be even louder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ilya Topuria \ud83c\udf99\ufe0f \u201cIt makes sense to be the next fighter to fight for the title. I don\u2019t know what Volkanovski\u2019s situation is, if he\u2019s busy or not, but I can wait, I have no problem. If they offer me to fight Max Holloway in Spain, I will accept. If nothing happens Either way, I&#8217;ll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}