Vice President of the Russian promotion ASA Aslanbek Badaev, in a conversation with , called UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev the most interesting opponent for Ilia Topuria, who defended the champion belt from the featherweight division.
At UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, Topuria knocked out Max Holloway, making his first defense of the belt in the under 66 kg category. Topuria is of Georgian descent, but lives and trains in Spain, representing the country in the UFC. Previously, the fighter, who did not suffer any defeats in his professional career, said that he could move to lightweight and fight with the champion of this category, Russian Islam Makhachev.
– Ilya is a fighter of an insane level. It seems to me that he can do anything. He believes in his striking and has a great ground game…just a fighter with no weaknesses. As he says of himself “new generation”, that’s how it is. On the one hand, he is a very noble guy, despite his trash talk, he remained respectful after the fight, paid tribute to Max Holloway and said that he had not yet achieved what Max himself had realized. And very kindly, he made Alex Volkanovski understand that he did not want to eliminate him a second time. The Volkanovski-Topuria fight is useless.
Now it seems to me that Topuria in general has sparked interest in the featherweight division. It’s been a long time since there has been such a charismatic champion. I think the Makhachev-Topuria battle should take place. It would be incredible and such a fight now makes perfect sense. If Makhachev defends his belt against Arman Tsarukyan, this fight should happen,” Badaev told .
Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
More sports news in our telegram channel .
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
