- Ilia Topuria set his sights on Conor McGregor after a title fight with Max Holloway
- “El Matador” is confident about being the first fighter to knock “Blessed” out
Ilia Topuria is hoping to face Conor McGregor for a historic fight and take Max Holloway out in his first title defense.
Max first, Conor next
Speaking to Sportskeeda, “El Matador” let everybody know of his plan to defend his title against Holloway before making history with McGregor in a blockbuster fight, preferably in Spain.
“I hope to defend the belt with Max Holloway, and then I wanna fight with Conor McGregor, hopefully,” Topuria said. “If [McGregor] wins his upcoming fight, that’s the fight I’m looking for. So hopefully it’s gonna happen.”
“It’s gonna be the biggest fight in the in the MMA history,” he continued. “The biggest ticketing, the biggest pay-per-view, the biggest everything. We’re gonna have 80,000 people watching the fight in the arena. Yeah. It’s gonna be in the Bernabeu. When the UFC is gonna arrive in Spain, it’s gonna happen in Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.”
Ilia says he’ll KO Max with one shot
Holloway has never been knocked out in his career and Topuria is confident he would be the first fighter to sleep “Blessed.” According to the reigning featherweight champion, all it takes is “one clear shot” and Holloway would be out.
“There is always the first time [for a knockout]. This is going to be the first time that someone is going to knock him out, and I’m the one who’s gonna do that. I see the first time we’re gonna start to exchange the hands, I’m gonna take his lights out, for sure. I know that. I just need one clear punch and I have the power to put him to sleep,” the champ predicted.
Topuria vs. Holloway target date
Topuria said they are planning to have his title fight with Holloway booked for September or before the year ends.
“My target is to come back in in September. Right now, we are in the conversations so we’ll see. If Max Holloway is able to fight in September, we have a fight. If not, I don’t know maybe we are going to the end of the year or something like that because I want to fight as soon as possible, because the next year I want to fight in Spain, so I want to be ready for that date,” Topuria revealed.
Holloway is coming off one the greatest knockout performances of all time at UFC 300. On the other hand, Topuria successfully ended the reign of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 via a second-round KO win.
Watch Topuria’s full interview below:
