Ilia Topuria tested out his featherweight title-winning combination on former UFC champion Jamahal Hill before unleashing it on Alexander Volkanovski in their UFC 298 headliner.
‘El Matador’ shocked the world last Saturday night, scoring a brutal second-round knockout against ‘The Great’ to capture his first world title. With 90 seconds left in the round, Topuria landed a booming right hand up against the cage that rendered his Aussie opposition out cold.
ILIA TOPURIA KNOCKED ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI OUT COLD pic.twitter.com/zvGldhWxCy
— Stream Highlights Clips (@selfemprovement) February 18, 2024
Looking back on the history-making knockout, Jamahal Hill revealed that Topuria uncorked the same combination on him a week before UFC 298 during a sparring session at The APEX.
“He hit me with the same combo, in the library, the PI, we just messing around, like little things, you know how fighters do,” Hill said via his YouTube channel. “Moved right in close to the pocket and he threw, he threw a jab, tap, tapped the jab, caught the first hook, he literally threw two hooks, bang, caught the first one, threw the second one, and caught and, like, he actually hit me. Yeah, he actually hit me, it was so fast, the boy was sharp bro, he was sharp.”
Jamahal Hill Impressed with Volkanovski’s Performance Despite Disastarous Result
Despite the decisive finish, ‘Sweet Dreams’ believes Volkanovski did just about everything right against Topuria.
“Volk did everything right,” Hill said. “Not every- I’m not going to say everything because ultimately, obviously lost, so there’s some other things that could be adjusted. But as far as his movement, his angles, and where he was, they weren’t bad. I mean, they weren’t bad, they were in good spots, the angles that he had on Ilia were pretty good, he was able to walk him into some spots. Thing is, Ilia stayed calm, he stayed composed, and he stayed forward, and pushing him back.”
Immediately following the fight, Volkanovski was already angling for a rematch between the two in Topuria’s home country of Spain. Whether or not ‘The Great’ gets a rematch remains to be seen.
Watch the full video below:
