Ilia Topuria has no interest in fighting Arman Tsarukyan, and sends a message to Max Holloway.
The new UFC lightweight champion captured the belt with a sensational knockout of Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 in June. On a Kick stream with The Nelk Boys, Topuria was asked about a potential fight with Arman Tsarukyan for his first title defense.
While it makes sense from a meritocratic perspective, Topuria has no interest in the matchup, especially after Tsarukyan withdrew from his chance to fight for the belt
a day before UFC 311 and his scheduled matchup with then-champ Islam Makhachev.
“First of all, who gives a f*ck about him,” Topuria said. “He’s kind of weird, dude. ... [He pulled out] for no reason Topuria. If you really have a serious reason, I don’t know how could it happen, but break your hand, your leg, something like that, I don’t know.
“Me? I would go, even like that inside the octagon.”
Topuria also turned his attention to Holloway, who had some comments about Topuria saying he’s the BMF champion when the belt wasn’t on the line when they met at UFC 308 this past October.
“At the end of the day, when the UFC didn’t put it up, it is what it is, you know,” Holloway said at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference following his win over Dustin Poirier this past Saturday.
“It just makes no sense what he’s doing walking around with it, or whatever. Did you see [Islam Makhachev] walking around with [another] champion’s belt after beating [Alexander Volkanovski] two times? You know what I mean? Like, the belt wasn’t on the line. Get over it, brother. Why did you spend money on a damn f*cking belt?”
“El Matador” couldn’t disagree more, especially since Topuria became the first to stop Holloway with strikes in their meeting nine months ago in Abu Dhabi.
“That’s not my problem,” Topuria said. “I just knocked him out. How can you still be the BMF if I knock you out?
“I told you, I pointed to the ground in the first 10 seconds. You ran away. Then I caught you anyways and I put you to sleep. And you’re still the BMF? How’s that?”
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