Ilia Topuria wants to defend her title against Max Holloway and then fight Conor McGregor at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Spain.
Topria defeated Alexander Volkanovski by knockout in the second round with Brian Ortega to become the featherweight champion. Although he was an ideal opponent for his first defense, “El Matador” has now changed his tune.
Topria recently made a two-fight plan to first defend the strap against Holloway and then face McGregor in “the biggest fight in MMA history.” Topria plans to face the Notorious at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, home of the Real Madrid football club, and hopes to break all records. The Spaniard recently claimed that he also has a date set for his UFC debut, scheduled for this year in his home country.
“So I want to defend the belt against Max Holloway and hopefully fight Conor McGregor as well,” Topuria told Sportskeda MMA. “If he wins the next fight, that’s the fight I’m looking for. So hopefully that’s going to happen. It’s going to be the biggest fight in MMA history, biggest ticketing, biggest payout. – Per view, and everything is the biggest. There will be around 80,000 people watching the match in the arena… yes, it will be at the Bernabéu.”
Holloway became the BMF champion following a fifth-round knockout victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 last month, while McGregor is scheduled to return for the first time in three years in a welterweight bout against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29.
While Topuria is open to moving up a weight class to face McGregor, “El Matador” is not yet eyeing a matchup with current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
“Maybe, just maybe, in the future,” he said. “Right now I’m just looking at the Max Holloway fight and the Conor fight, but maybe he’ll be the one. [Makhachev]
He continues to defend his belt, keeps getting bigger and bigger, and maybe someday we’ll see him compete. But for now, at this point, he’s not on my list. ”