Media Ilia Topuria makes statement on his plan to change divisions, says he will not vacate title

[Arm Barbarian]

This fuckin guy.

He's a beast fighter, but an insufferable douche nozzle.

They need to strip his ass if he tries to hold the belt hostage while fucking off in other divisions.

 

[BangBang]

He's going to get his comeuppance soon enough, and I will be watching lol

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

so wtf is he saying. that he's not going to vacate but he's still going to LW? lmao.... is he going to try to do the Volkanovski move and fight Islam, and then go back down and defend? because if that's the case, that's dumb too. he should try to get a LW title shot and if he wins THEN vacate. if he tries to go up and down and maintain both belts he's getting ktfo by somebody guaranteed.

 

[Mammothman]

You just have on single defense little man, calm down, there is plenty of work at FW.

 

[blaseblase]

The problem with constantly talking BS is that people are no longer going to take you seriously and ignore what you have to say.

 

[sdpdude9]

Volk was undefeated at FW and 5-0 in title fights at FW before fighting Topuria. I understand people not being interested in the rematch because of volks age now and the sour taste the islam fights left in their mouths, but when looking at featherweight only, It is hard to say that volk does not deserve another shot, especially when you consider all the favors he did for UFC (weighed in as back up for more than one UFC title fight, filmed a dumb season of TUF in his prime for UFC, took short notice islam fight...etc etc)

They should just book it ASAP and get it over with.

This is accurate. Given the pretty low standard for instant rematches set by the UFC, Volk more than qualifies. Even though I personally have no interest in it.

 

[JKS]

If you wish to move up and fight for the belt, surely you got to go through a top 5 guy first.

That's why his team is angling for Olivera, or Poirier they said.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Anybody with a brain knew he wasn't going to vacate. No champ vacates so he can go and make less money fighting bigger contenders lol.

isn't that what Jon Jones did? lol

 

[fortheo]

isn't that what Jon Jones did? lol

Not really. John vacated so that he could go on a 3 year vacation, get fat, and then come back and walk into an immediate title shot up a division. Topuria isn't taking a vacation and he isn't getting an immediate title shot at LW -- he'd be giving up championship pay just to face a contender in a non championship bout up a weight class a few months later? It never made any sense.

 

[rjmbrd]

This is the thing that I think will hold Topuria back from his goals, he seems to think he is the A side in negotiating his career path with the UFC. That will not be rewarded. He speaks as though he is a higher authority than they are.

Topuria is 27 and talking about retiring at 30. He's currently undefeated and MURDERED back to back the two all-time greats of the featherweight division like it wasn't a difficult task.

He's had a few big paydays and is a legitimate star in his home country.

The UFC pays out absolutely terrible (13-15% of revenue) and operate in bad faith negotiating with fighters. Topuria is the extremely rare guy who has self advocacy and they can't steam roll or bad mouth. He has leverage and is obviously the best in the world in his prime. He absolutely is a higher authority than the UFC.

We're living in upside down world were the promoter is keeping almost all of the money and making all the decisions. That is absurd. This is why what Ngannou did was so important. I want to see Topuria fight, I don't give a shit that the UFC is the promoter.

 

[rjmbrd]

Not really. John vacated so that he could go on a 3 year vacation, get fat, and then come back and walk into an immediate title shot up a division. Topuria isn't taking a vacation and he isn't getting an immediate title shot at LW -- he'd be giving up championship pay just to face a contender in a non championship bout up a weight class a few months later? It never made any sense.

and/or serve a suspension we were never aware of, as its been recently revealed USADA had multiple athletes fail PEDS tests without public notification.

 

[DudeBroMMA]

I dont understand the double champ thing. You're better off dominating your division and becoming a star there.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Not really. John vacated so that he could go on a 3 year vacation, get fat, and then come back and walk into an immediate title shot up a division. Topuria isn't taking a vacation and he isn't getting an immediate title shot at LW -- he'd be giving up championship pay just to face a contender in a non championship bout up a weight class a few months later? It never made any sense.

the not fighting for the title is the part that doesn't make sense. so he wants to go up to LW and fight Oliveira? what a weird ask. imagine if they had him rematch Max at LW and Max ended up winning lmao. i doubt that would happen, but he's putting himself in a position for something like that to complicate his run. according to him, he has 3 yrs left before he's out, a loss now is going to derail that, or at least extend that timeline.

it seems like the best bet for him is to just fight Islam. but i guess he's not confident in that? but if he's not confident in fighting Islam, it kinda makes no sense that he'd want to go to LW anyway. i don't know, Lord Farquaad is a weird dude. he smoked the guy who nearly beat Islam, and he smoked the other guy who KO'd the #1 contender at LW, is beating Oliveira really going to give him the confidence he needs to face Islam if smoking Volk and Max didn't do it?

 

[TheBulge]

This is a bad idea. He should be learning from the guy he just KTFO this year. You can't play around like that in weight classes.

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

Topuria is 27 and talking about retiring at 30. He's currently undefeated and MURDERED back to back the two all-time greats of the featherweight division like it wasn't a difficult task.

He's had a few big paydays and is a legitimate star in his home country.

The UFC pays out absolutely terrible (13-15% of revenue) and operate in bad faith negotiating with fighters. Topuria is the extremely rare guy who has self advocacy and they can't steam roll or bad mouth. He has leverage and is obviously the best in the world in his prime. He absolutely is a higher authority than the UFC.

We're living in upside down world were the promoter is keeping almost all of the money and making all the decisions. That is absurd. This is why what Ngannou did was so important. I want to see Topuria fight, I don't give a shit that the UFC is the promoter.

 

[checktheknuckles]

Volkanovski has lost to one featherweight in his entire UFC run & he had 5 title defenses. Silly to argue he doesn't deserve it.

Why even mention Sterling? He's ranked #9 and just lost to Evloev. He's not getting a step up in competition.

Getting easily knocked the fuck out in 2 fights in a row for Volk, makes him earn a title shot how again?

 

[svmr_db]

Getting easily knocked the fuck out in 2 fights in a row for Volk, makes him earn a title shot how again?

UFC isn't going to hold the 2nd Islam loss against him that much. It's just like Usman's loss to Chimaev, yeah it's an L on his record but in the grand scheme of things it will get downplayed a bit given the circumstances of how the fight was made.

5 title defenses, only beaten by one FW ever and he was a good company man for the UFC. He's getting his rematch (or title fight vs someone out if Ilia really wants to stop fighting at FW) and there shouldn't be much controversy over it.