Ilia Topuria dropped a ton of information during a lengthy streaming interview with Adin Ross. One thing he couldn’t reveal: his next opponent or fight date because he doesn’t know who (or when) it will be.
“In summer,” Topuria told Ross. “Hopefully, if I’m fighting in the White House, I don’t know. I don’t know. You don’t say to the UFC where they have to put you and they don’t tell you how you fight. This is basically how it works. As of right now I have no f–king idea what’s going on. I’m ready.”
“I thought [Paddy] was going to win the fight,” Topuria said. “The fight was f–king horrible. I think they both looked really bad. Both of them. I think [I’ll fight Justin next]. I think so.”
But, any other name is fine, too. Topuria made it clear that the only thing stopping a potential Arman Tsarukyan fight these days is UFC (details here).
“If they call me, if they want me to fight with Arman, no problem,” he said. “I fought with so many tough opponents. I don’t want to fight Arman? I don’t care. If they give me that fight, I’m fighting him. All of them. Same night.”
“[Islam] is what I want, too,” Topuria said. “The perfect scenario for me would be fighting him in the welterweight division because that way I’d be able to collect my third belt.
”But, also it would be great scenario to fight between 155 and 170 and create a new belt,” he added. “Why not, call it ‘Pound For Pound.’ Because he’s the No. 1, I’m the No. 2. Right now for me, I’m the No. 1. But, yeah, you put two of the best guys in the world for the Pound For Pound belt, in the middle. Whoever wins is the best.”
Whatever UFC decides, it will have to keep in mind Topuria is nothing like Merab Dvalishvili, who tried to defend his 135-pound title four times in one year.
“Everyone has his own style, if that makes him happy, he has to do that,” Topuria said of Dvalishvili, a fellow Georgian. “For me, I don’t like to fight three or four times a year because I really enjoy having a proper training camp. I never go into the Octagon with an injury or something like that.
“I always go at my 100,” Topuria concluded. “When I go inside the Octagon, I really want to fight.”
