The most important thing Ilia Topuria learned from his divorce? To always listen to his mother.
Topuria is set to return to action at the UFC White House event on June 11th, which is nearly a year removed from his last fight against Charles Oliveira back at UFC 317. What kept him out of the cage for so long? A messy divorce and custody battle with his now ex-wife Giorgina Uzcategui Badell.
That split saw Badell petition the court to allow her to move their daughter to Miami, and along the way some
serious allegations were thrown around. Topuria would release a statement declaring he was the victim of ‘attempted extortion’ via ‘false allegations of domestic abuse.’ He would end up stepping away from the sport in December 2025 to deal with the situation.
Now that a divorce and custody arrangement has been finalized, Topuria is more philosophical about the situation.
“It is a process in which both parties suffer,” he said of the situation. “In that suffering, when emotions are involved, one wants to punish the other by taking advantage of the children. That should not be done, kids should not be involved in that emotional battle. You have to let them live and grow and make their lives easier.”
“Those who know me know that when something is out of my control, I don’t live it from a negative place,” he told Spanish outlet El Hormiguero. “I don’t sit there asking, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ There are two ways to deal with it, right? Either way, I have to go through it. I can experience it negatively, or I can simply accept my reality and move forward.”
“I’ve had these conversations with the people closest to me, with everyone,” he added. “And when they ask me what I’ve learned the most from all of this? It might make you laugh, but the biggest thing I’ve learned is to listen to my mother. Because mothers have an intuition, they see things we don’t. When your mother tells you something isn’t right, no matter how clear it seems to you, it isn’t. I learned to listen to my mother. I love you, Mom.”
Let’s hope Topuria’s mom encourages him to fight Arman Tsarukyan next before moving up to welterweight and fighting Islam Makhachev. If mother is always right, that is the correct path forward.
