Newly-crowned UFC featherweight titleholder Ilia Topuria has a lot to say for a champ without a single title defense.
Topuria will face former 145-pound kingpin Max Holloway atop the UFC 308 pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. (Oct. 26, 2024) at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and recently found himself in a war of words with reigning welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
“I think that dude’s got Napoleon syndrome or something,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “Short guys always act like they’re tough. I think he started coming at me because somebody asked me about why is he coming at Islam [Makhachev]. I said bro, he needs to focus on [Max] Holloway, who’s in front of him and you don’t want to disrespect the guys from Dagestan because they see you in person, they’re going to slap you. They don’t take that stuff. They don’t play the trash talk game. It’s real life to them. I think he took offense to it.”
Topuria, listed at 5’7” tall, also claims he’ll go on to become three-division champion, doing little to refute allegations that he’s a Conor McGregor copycat.
“He’s not really good at trash talking,” Muhammad continued. “When he comes at me, it’s laughable because he’s basically copying words off memes. At the end of the day, we’re not going to fight in the cage so why are you even giving me those words? You’re trying to talk tough because you know nothing’s really going to come of it. He can say ‘I want to go up to 170 and be a triple champ after this,’ but you know you’re not. I don’t even think he’s going to get past Holloway. I think he’s going to lose this fight and then we don’t even have to hear his freaking mouse voice.”
We’ll find out in just over 48 hours.
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