Ilya Topuria wants to defend his featherweight title against Max Holloway after the Hawaiian’s incredible performance at UFC 300 on Saturday.
Holloway moved to lightweight and challenged Justin Gaethje for the BMF title at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Holloway, who came into the game as a huge underdog, had the best performance of his career, hitting “The Highlight” before going down on a buzzer-beater. “Blessed” also earned both “Fight of the Night” and “Performance of the Night” honors, with special card prizes increased to $300,000 each.
Holloway’s performance was enough to get the featherweight champion’s attention. After defeating Alexander Volkanovski to win the title at UFC 298 in February, he mentioned the names of Islam Makhachev, Conor McGregor and even Khabib Nurmagomedov, but “El Matador” He claimed he finally knew who he wanted to fight next.
“It’s clear to me, my next fight is against Max Holloway,” Topuria said. ESPN Deportes. “Congratulations. Have fun tonight. But after fighting me, he has to return to action.”
Holloway also expressed interest in Topuria’s featherweight title shot after coming up short in his last three title fights with Alexander Volkanovski. “Blessed” is a reference to Topria’s remarks in Saturday’s postgame press conference.
“That’s cool,” Holloway said. “What do you want me to say? What would happen if he went to the back of the line? At the end of the day, we’ll find out. Like I said, we have questions, we have questions. Yes, we are in a fighting game. Ilia can talk, but I have a lot of questions. I like to ask, so I’m looking forward to it. Masu.”
