Ilia Topuria is turning the page. The most recent chapter was a nightmare, but there are blank pages left in his book.
Five months after his UFC Freedom 250 loss, Topuria (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) has his mind back on fighting. It's been a period of much-needed reset after a skyrocket to stardom. Topuria has returned to Georgia in an effort to return to his roots.
"The defeat didn't turn off the fire," Topuria told "One On One." "It made it bigger right now. The fire is bigger right now. Everything that I'm feeling. Everything I want to do, that I want to keep doing, it's bigger. It just opened my mind in a different way."
Topuria, 29, said he will return to full training in January. Currently, he's just working on technique. But a few months after he goes
all-in, UFC fans should expect to see him back in the cage.
"Since January, I'm going to be able to get back to my trainings 100 percent because until this point, I wasn't able to have any kind of contact, like sparring, wrestling, grappling, all that," Topuria said. "I was able to do the techniques, the strength and conditioning a little bit. But not to train at my 100 percent. Once I'm going to get back to my trainings in February, let's see how I'm going to feel, how my body is going to respond. I believe my body is going to respond well as always. Everything is going to be all right. If everything is going to be all right, I think I'm going to get back in the octagon in April, May, June, something like that."
With the question of "When?" answered, the question of "Who?" remains. Topuria seems indifferent, though particularly to a rematch vs. Justin Gaethje. He also acknowledged contender Arman Tsarukyan and rival Paddy Pimblett as possibilities.
"I would love (a Gaethje rematch)," Topuria said. "I would love it. Why not? I want to have my rematch. It's going to happen at some point. He's talking about retirement and all that. But it was the biggest moment in his lifetime to fight against me, to fight in the White House. Whenever he's going to remember the biggest moment in his life, it's going to be for sure the fight that we had. The most amount of money in his life, also was against me. I don't think he's going to retire without one more paycheck. He's not going to have that paycheck with any other guy.
"We're going to put him as an opponent, not only for Justin, for anyone. You put me against Arman, and it's going to be the biggest fight in his entire life and the biggest paycheck he's going to have. If you put me against Paddy, and it's going to be his biggest fight, his biggest paycheck. You put me against Justin, and that tells you that I'm the fight right now in the division. ... (Pimblett) is probably going to be a huge fight. As I told you, if you put me against anyone right now, I'm going to change their lives financially. The bad part is that I'm going to change their lives physically as well. Now, they're going to face a man that saw everything in this sport. Nothing (scares) me.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ilia Topuria reveals targeted UFC return timeline: 'The fire is bigger'
