Either Ilia is dumb or scared

[orca]

The Islam fight is huge. Why would "scared" enter this equation? He wants to fight the biggest fight, against a bigger guy who is at the top of the sport right now.

I understand he wants that more than the fight with Arman. Unfortunatley time doesnt favor it right now.

We also have to see if UFC havent already decided to slot Paddy in there for the next shot, as unfair as that is.

but you act like illia is on a jones,silva gsp level title defences lmfao

where he can just jump with no title defences and fight whoever he wants

your also the one who think jon jones doesnt deserve to fight pereira the biggest fight
maybe his last fight vs a real 2 division champ but you believe he deserves bumspinal lmao

dude



always contradicting yourself ey

 

[Alpha_T83]

Not enough people talk about this because he’s such an entertaining fighter to watch….but Ilia is a HORRIBLE champ. He’s inactive, he doesn’t defend against the rightful contenders, he’s entitled and choosy, has negative charisma, etc. Outside of his fighting style he’s one of the worst champs in recent memory.

Yup. That's why I don't like him.

The moment he beat Volk, he started trashing all the 145 contenders, saying no one deserved to fight for the title. It was ridiculous. Now he seems to be doing the same thing at 155 pounds.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Or maybe UFC is saving him for Paramount? Might just be why no major fights are announced yet?

 

[HHJ]

but you act like illia is on a jones,silva gsp level title defences lmfao

No, you literally just made that up and then laughed at your own invention.

 

[Black0ut]

If he picks Paddy over Arman, I can’t really see any reason other than looking for the easier fight. PPV will be done by the time he fights next.

Pretty lame considering Illa vs Arman is the biggest fight that he could be involved in outside of fighting Islam, which is %100 NOT happening next.

 

[moosaev]

Yup. That's why I don't like him.

The moment he beat Volk, he started trashing all the 145 contenders, saying no one deserved to fight for the title. It was ridiculous. Now he seems to be doing the same thing at 155 pounds.

He actually tried to poo poo Holloway after he KO’d Gaethje lol. Absurd.

 

[moosaev]

Or maybe UFC is saving him for Paramount? Might just be why no major fights are announced yet?

Rumours are that paramount opening card is Kayla vs Nunes, ilia apparently won’t be fighting until spring. So he wants to fight paddy in the spring, after which we probably won’t see him again until 2027 lol.

 

[hector domino]

Islam ran away to WW scared of Topuria. He’s laid out the blueprint of avoiding hard fights and taking easy ones.

Ilia is basically a mirror of Islam. Ilia and Islam both avoided/Ducked a high risk low reward fight(Ilia for Islam/ Evloev for Topuria) and moved up to the high reward fight with much lower Risk(Double champ glory by beating Olivera and Double champ glory by beating JDM). This is basically the spiderman pointing finger meme

 

[RockyLockridge]

Illa slumps him anyweight

 

[The XL]

Arman lost to Gamrot and barely beat an old Charles. So he beat Hooker who idiotically kept going for guillotines. Fantastic. I don't see why Ilia would be intimidated

 

[Söze Aldo]

Rumours are that paramount opening card is Kayla vs Nunes, ilia apparently won’t be fighting until spring. So he wants to fight paddy in the spring, after which we probably won’t see him again until 2027 lol.

Paramount would probably ask for a refund if the UFC really followed through with that as a headline event.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Yup. That's why I don't like him.

The moment he beat Volk, he started trashing all the 145 contenders, saying no one deserved to fight for the title. It was ridiculous. Now he seems to be doing the same thing at 155 pounds.

Goat shit

 

[Russie]

Far from dumb or scared. Smart and strategic is more like it. He's been clear he doesn't care to fight Arman. He has his reasons. I also would fight Gaetjhe or Paddy first. His list consist of those guys along Islam and Bud Crawford in boxing. A crawford fight will not happen and I'm not confident one with Islam will either. He's going to have to fight Arman and I expect will win convincingly.

 

[Skarsgard]

Yup. Miminium 2. If he beats Arman and Paddy, and islam beats a couple of guys, then they do a super fight at 170. Otherwise it’s just silly.

It's silly even then. There are more than two contenders at 170.

 

[Portland8242]

Far from dumb or scared. Smart and strategic is more like it. He's been clear he doesn't care to fight Arman. He has his reasons. I also would fight Gaetjhe or Paddy first. His list consist of those guys along Islam and Bud Crawford in boxing. A crawford fight will not happen and I'm not confident one with Islam will either. He's going to have to fight Arman and I expect will win convincingly.

Is that what we're calling ducking #1 contenders now? "Smart and strategic"?

 

[El Fernas]

Arman has 3M followers, Paddy 5M, Islam 12M
Ilia in his mind is unbeatable, he just wants the most fame and money as a prize fighter

Islam fight comes with a new belt on the line, the number of followers is sort of an added bonus.

 

[moosaev]

Far from dumb or scared. Smart and strategic is more like it. He's been clear he doesn't care to fight Arman. He has his reasons. I also would fight Gaetjhe or Paddy first. His list consist of those guys along Islam and Bud Crawford in boxing. A crawford fight will not happen and I'm not confident one with Islam will either. He's going to have to fight Arman and I expect will win convincingly.

You’re not really saying anything bud. Most ducks are “smart and strategic” in that they make some logical and commercial sense, but that’s not an excuse. It was “smart and strategic” for Canelo to avoid David Benavidez like the plague, but it was still a shameless duck and it’s badly tarnished Canelo’s reputation and legacy. The same will be true for ilia. If he ducks Arman he’ll forever be known as a fraud who never really stood and defended any weight class despite becoming a double champ.

 

[nostradumbass]

It's hardly new for fighters to not want to defend what they have. It's why almost every new champ talks about moving up for the 2nd title as soon as they win the 1st one. It's harder to stay motivated to keep fighting for something you already have. Even Topuria's 1 defense at FW was him wanting it to be for Max's BMF belt and for him to come back down after putting on weight to move up permanently, only to move up himself right after.

It's his job as a champ to defend the title, but Arman is a high risk fight for him and even if he wins, all he gets is keeping what he already had, and if he loses, he's just another contender and would have 0 chance of ever fighting for a WW title. Paddy's good but he's not that fast, doesn't have 1 shot KO power and probably wouldn't be able to keep the fight on the ground, so he's a much easier style matchup for the same defense than Arman who could keep the fight on the ground.

 

[moosaev]

It's hardly new for fighters to not want to defend what they have. It's why almost every new champ talks about moving up for the 2nd title as soon as they win the 1st one. It's harder to stay motivated to keep fighting for something you already have. Even Topuria's 1 defense at FW was him wanting it to be for Max's BMF belt and for him to come back down after putting on weight to move up permanently, only to move up himself right after.

It's his job as a champ to defend the title, but Arman is a high risk fight for him and even if he wins, all he gets is keeping what he already had, and if he loses, he's just another contender and would have 0 chance of ever fighting for a WW title. Paddy's good but he's not that fast, doesn't have 1 shot KO power and probably wouldn't be able to keep the fight on the ground, so he's a much easier style matchup for the same defense than Arman who could keep the fight on the ground.

Besides Conor, it’s unprecedented for a champ to refuse to the defend the belt like ilia did at 145. Islam, Volk, Izzy, DC, etc all defended their belts multiple times over years before they moved up for another belt. Now ilia wants to do it twice? Absurd.

 

[moosaev]

Ilia is basically a mirror of Islam. Ilia and Islam both avoided/Ducked a high risk low reward fight(Ilia for Islam/ Evloev for Topuria) and moved up to the high reward fight with much lower Risk(Double champ glory by beating Olivera and Double champ glory by beating JDM). This is basically the spiderman pointing finger meme

You can’t remotely compare the two situations. Firstly, Islam broke the record for LW title defenses and was the LWchamp for 3 years. Ilia was FW champ for 1 year and only defended one time despite having multiple viable contenders (Evloev, Lopes, Volk rematch, etc). Islam really had nothing left to prove at 155, can’t say the same for ilia. Secondly, Islam was calling for a 170 title shot before ilia was even the 145 champ, so his moving up had nothing to do with ilia since he was trying to do that before ilia was a thing.