Holloway warns Topuria: “I will be seeing you soon”
The Hawaiian, the No. 2 ranked featherweight fighter, brutally KO’d Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 and will be the Spanish-Georgian’s next rival.
Max Holloway’s spectacular KO win over Justin Gaethje to take the BMF title from him stole the show at last weekend’s UFC 300.
It was an impressive victory that helped him book his next clash and find an opponent, Ilia Topuria. The Hawaiian was one of the fighters El Matador planned to fight, and his win over Gaethje made him Topuria’s next rival.
“It’s all love champ. I’ll be seeing you soon. Jeremiah 51:20″, Holloway wrote on X, answering Ilia’s message saying he would become the first mixed martial artist to knock out the Hawaiian.
Holloway wants the featherweight belt back
After many unknowns, Topuria has already announced Holloway as the next challenge for his first featherweight title defense fight, a belt he won after knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round. Blessed, who became the category’s champion in 2017, wants to recover the belt.
Differently from Topuria, Max lost the featherweight crown to Volkanovski. He had cleaned out the division until the Australian defeated him and took his belt. They fought three times and were all wins for Alexander, although there was some controversy in some of them, as they were very close fights. El Matador isn’t worried, since he knocked out Volkanovski, something Holloway couldn’t do.
During UFC 300, Topuria was in the front row, alongside former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. And his reaction to Holloway’s knockout win, like all those present, was one of absolute surprise, since it happened in the last second of the fight.
In the post-fight interview, the Hawaiian asked for a fight with the champion: “There’s ‘El Matador.’ He’s running away from the bull!” he shouted. Shortly after, Topuria accepted the challenge in an interview with ESPN, and on his social networks.