Ilia Topuria: Movsar Evloev 'Needs to Finish Someone' to Earn Title Shot

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

As badass as Ilia is, him dismissing all contenders and trying to pick a fight with Conrat is pretty weak IMO.

Anyone calling out Conor not named Michael Chandler looks absolutely terrible.

Can't blame the guy wanting to get paid enough to buy box seats for Real Madrid

 

[Kaiokenrye24]

Strictly on merit Volkanovski should get the rematch but who knows what his time table is and Dana did not seem keen on giving him the shot.

Max lost to Volkanovski 3 times, and Yair/Ortega quit once the tide turned against them. I don’t think they can beat Topuria since he is so vicious with that killer instinct

I know Evloev hasn’t had any stoppages in the ufc but that doesn’t mean he is boring. He hurt Dan Ige(who has a Holloway chin) badly with a flying knee and is well rounded in ways the others are not. It would be a fun fight

 

[xhaydenx]

Yeh, book it.

Mov stands absolutely no chance though lol. He can't strike and his best skill is wrestling, which Topuria is miles better at anyway.

Mov would be lucky to see the 2nd round.

 

[svmr_db]

Lol UFC has no incentive to make that fight right now, I don't favor Evloev but he's got at least a decent chance to win.

One guy with sky-high through the roof potential, taking MMA to the next level in Spain vs a guy with the appeal of Belal Muhammad lol.

 

[Goatenstein]

Topuria ducking Movsar much like Franklin ducked Lindland.

 

[Dana's Conscience]

Dana said he didn't like the Allen fight, which he said to form the foundation of an excuse to deny Evloev a title shot. Here's the bottom line. Next is either going to be a Volk rematch or the winner of Yair/Ortega. After that, everything's up in the air. Evloev should either fight Emmett or the winner of Kattar/Sterling next. Speaking of Kattar/Sterling, I have no idea why people aren't talking about this fight more. It's in the UFC 300 top 5 for sure.

 

[Elvis.]

Once someone finds the necronomicon and casts whatever evil spell necessary to get Mcgregor to fight again I’ll consider him , I would really like to see him fight max , but it’s probably the winner of Ortega vs Yair
Unless O’Malley begs for it to avoid Merab

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Can't blame the guy wanting to get paid enough to buy box seats for Real Madrid

I was going to ask is he even a PPV draw anymore, but 264 did $1.8 million so Conor still has the casual draw.
Everyone would have liked Topuria to call out Evloev, undefeated vs undefeated and a sensible meritocracy-wise fight.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

I was going to ask is he even a PPV draw anymore, but 264 did $1.8 million so Conor still has the casual draw.
Everyone would have liked Topuria to call out Evloev, undefeated vs undefeated and a sensible meritocracy-wise fight.

Casuals are going to want to see that actor from Roadhouse fight...

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Dude said he would fight whoever they tell him to.

Sherdoggers will hate tho.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

“He needs to finish someone” is not a valid reason to avoid someone that’s 18-0 8-0 in the UFC. Just something he made up, and his fans will parrot, becuz they know Evloev is the toughest fight for him. I say this as a big fan of Topuria.

Someone should remind Ilia that the UFC is the one that will choose his next opponent, not himself.

Topuria actually said at the end that his job is to fight whoever the company puts in front of him.

@Kowboy On Sherdog clickbait FTW!

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Topuria actually said at the end that his job is to fight whoever the company puts in front of him.

@Kowboy On Sherdog clickbait FTW!

 

[Alpha_T83]

Thankfully the UFC chooses his opponents for him. If a champion straight up refuses to fight a contender, they can strip him of the title. Don't worry, they'll inform him of this.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Topuria actually said at the end that his job is to fight whoever the company puts in front of him.

@Kowboy On Sherdog clickbait FTW!

 

[austinblair]

Movsar Evloev will be the champion before the end of 2024.

 

[Kaiokenrye24]

Interesting.

The way I look at this match up is that Topuria has never faced someone like Evloev. On the flip side, Evloev has impressively beaten a poor man’s version of Topuria in Dan Ige. Another thing, Topuria loves to fight in boxing range, which is the ideal range for a grappler like Evloev. Lastly, Topuria is at a size disadvantage which is not good vs a relentless grappler. Will his stamina hold up? Can he deal with the grappling while keeping the boxing stance? A good grappler can make an elite striker look mediocre. We saw that with Islam vs Volk. These are some of the question I want to see answered by the champ.

Luckily for Ilia he has a legitimate wrestling/grappling background. I don’t think Movsar is bigger considering he’s fought at 135 before the ufc

 

[jko1355]

I'm still hoping Justin slips and hurts his ankle just a tiny bit but enough that we get max for Topuria at ufc 300 instead

 

[OleBuffalo]

Dude said he would fight whoever they tell him to.

Sherdoggers will hate tho.

Tbf he said all kinds of contradictory stuff too, so it’s fair to acknowledge that, but you’re right that at the end of the day he seems aware of needing to play his part as champ

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Max should be the pick unless Gaethje beats him up too bad which he might. If that happens then the Yair vs Ortega winner or Ebelov but feel like that would be UFC'S third or fourth pick right now.

 

[drphil]

So evloev isn't good enough to fight him but he'll call out a guy who hasn't won a fight since Lincoln was president?

Can we please get a champion who isn't an entitled little bitch and actually defend against ranked opponents.
Jesus christ.