With his impressive victory over Max Holloway still fresh in the memory, Ilia Topuria visited on Thursday The Anthillthe Antena 3 program presented by Pablo Motos. Among the different topics discussed, the first seconds of the meeting stand out, in which The Hispanic-Georgian offered his rival to exchange blows in the center of the octagonsomething that the applicant rejected.
The current world featherweight champion in the UFC was comfortable on his second visit to space prime time of the leading Atresmedia chain after the summer. Topuria reviewed in detail his fight in the main event of UFC 308in which he became the first man to knock out Max Holloway.
‘El Matador’ wanted to do it in the first moments, although the Hawaiian rejected the offer. In the first round, Topuria approached the center of the octagon, and offered his arms for his rival to approach, but Holloway preferred to keep his distance, making a bullfighter’s gesture to try to provoke the champion.
The idea of ​​exchanging blows comes from Max himself, although in his case, at the end of the fight: “He does it at the end, I do it at the beginning, because we would never have had it. We were never going to get to fifth. (assault), I thought. I challenged him, but he did not want to accept the challenge. I had several combinations in mind, I was going to put him to sleep and he knew it.“said Topuria.
“I don’t know what his thought process was, but we had thought before the fight what was going to happen if he didn’t accept the challenge. His strategy was to extend the fight and take it to the judges’ decision.“, theorized the UFC champion, and then reviewed the strategy that led him to victory: “By not accepting, I started with boxing, then takedowns, then kicks… I uncoordinated him. He saw that I always boxed, but I started doing everything and I lost it.“said Topuria.