{"id":2903,"date":"2024-02-18T09:54:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T08:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=2903"},"modified":"2024-02-18T15:08:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T14:08:25","slug":"spanish-matador-knocks-alexander-volkanovski-off-his-throne-and-crowns-himself-featherweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/spanish-matador-knocks-alexander-volkanovski-off-his-throne-and-crowns-himself-featherweight-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish matador knocks Alexander Volkanovski off his throne and crowns himself featherweight champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ilia Topuria is the new\u00a0<span data-track-module=\"internal-body-link\">UFC<\/span>\u00a0featherweight champion of the world after brutally knocking\u00a0<span data-track-module=\"internal-body-link\">Alexander Volkanovski<\/span>\u00a0out cold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">El Matador became the bull and the 145-pound king delivered on his pre-fight promise to end it early. His concussive power was the difference against a man eight years his senior, who had ruled the roost so dominantly in the division and had tech billionaire\u00a0<span data-track-module=\"internal-body-link\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/span>\u00a0in his corner on the night.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">this ending made the ufc 300 announcement shit tbh <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Un3E13Gs12\">pic.twitter.com\/Un3E13Gs12<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dovy\ud83d\udd0c (@DovySimuMMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DovySimuMMA\/status\/1759168868612813207?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ilia Topuria became the new featherweight champion with a sensational knockout win at UFC 298.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 27-year-old knocked 145lb legend Alexander Volkanovski out cold with just one punch inside California&#8217;s Honda Center on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Volanovski started the bout by aiming kicks at all areas of his opponent&#8217;s body during a feeling-out process that coincided with the crowd cheering his name.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Topuria began to have success with calf kicks as the round progressed and impressed UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Michael Bisping with his early performance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gold looks good on you, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Topuriailia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TopuriaIlia<\/a> \ud83c\udfc6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC298?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC298<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cxvQ9r28Ik\">pic.twitter.com\/cxvQ9r28Ik<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; UFC (@ufc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ufc\/status\/1759120803873100163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, all three judges scored the frame against him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not that it mattered. Topuria closed the show in the second stanza.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8216;El Matador&#8217; trapped Volkanovski against the fence before rushing in with a combination that included a picture-perfect right hook to the chin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8216;The Great&#8217; dropped to the floor unconscious but he took a few extra shots from Topuria before the referee stepped in and waved things off.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Topuria is the first UFC champion from Spain.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"qme\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AndNew?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AndNew<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Topuriailia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Topuriailia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC298?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC298<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WkuPIt8cTU\">pic.twitter.com\/WkuPIt8cTU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; danawhite (@danawhite) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danawhite\/status\/1759104923713888563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Georgian-born fighter, who relocated to Alicante with his family 15 years ago, wants his first featherweight title defence to be history-making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ilia Topuria is the new\u00a0UFC\u00a0featherweight champion of the world after brutally knocking\u00a0Alexander Volkanovski\u00a0out cold. El Matador became the bull and the 145-pound king delivered on his pre-fight promise to end it early. His concussive power was the difference against a man eight years his senior, who had ruled the roost so dominantly in the division [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,47],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ufc-news","8":"category-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903"}],"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=2903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2905,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions\/2905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}