One of MMA’s biggest superstars and the first simultaneous double champion in the UFC, Connor McGregor took the sporting world by storm with his scintillating performances inside the octagon. McGregor left an everlasting impact on MMA as evidenced by how much many budding fighters in the sport look up to him and imitate his persona.
One such copycat is Ilia Topuria and like McGregor, the Georgian fighter became the featherweight champion in the UFC with a seven-fight win streak. The undefeated Georgian went on to call out the sport’s biggest superstar McGregor for a faceoff in Spain.
Conor McGregor responds to Ilia Topuria’s UFC callout
Ilia Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round via a brutal knockout in the main event of UFC 298. In his post-fight speech, Topuria called for a fight with Conor McGregor as he said, “Conor McGregor, if you have some balls, I will be waiting for you in Spain.”
It did not take long for ‘The Notorious’ Irishman to respond in kind, “I have huge balls. I have 4 kids”, in the comments section of an Instagram post. UFC CEO Dana White was asked about Topuria’s callout and White did not think it had any hope of materializing in the featherweight division.
Conor McGregor and Ilia Topuria had a similar trajectory to becoming featherweight champions in the UFC. Both took exactly seven fights to reach the pinnacle of the division and had to dethrone long-reigning champions Jose Aldo and Alexander Volkanovski to become champions in the UFC.
It needs to be noted that McGregor predicted a victory for Volkanovski at UFC 298 and ironically it was not the only prediction of his that did not materialize at the event. He had also predicted Ian Garry to finish Geoff Neal in round 1 but McGregor’s compatriot won via split decision.
Ilia Topuria calls out Conor McGregor at ‘any weight’ once more
Ilia Topuria was not bothered by Dana White’s comments about Conor McGregor not fighting at featherweight anymore. “He (McGregor) can choose the weight. I choose the place”, Topuria said at the post-fight press conference of his interest in fighting irrespective of weight class, but he was adamant about fighting in Spain.
Topuria has fought the majority of his career at featherweight but has also competed at bantamweight and lightweight. On the other hand, McGregor has not fought at featherweight ever since he dethroned Jose Aldo to become the champion. Since then, McGregor has fought six times with the UFC: thrice each at lightweight and welterweight.
Topuria has competed once at lightweight in the UFC against Jai Herbert which he won via knockout. McGregor has knockout victories in all the weight classes he has fought and is targeting a knockout at a fourth weight class. The Irishman had announced that he would be fighting Michael Chandler at middleweight in June.
UFC CEO Dana White is very skeptical of McGregor fighting inside the octagon ever again particularly due to the immense wealth that the Irishman has accumulated which possibly has surpassed that of the UFC CEO himself.
Do you think Conor McGregor will fight Ilia Topuria? Leave your prediction below!