Why is Topuria known as ‘El Matador’? Where did the nickname come from?
The undefeated mixed martial artist is taking on the biggest fight of his career on Saturday facing Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title.
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With only hours left for one of the biggest and most-anticipated UFC events, Ilia Topuria is making his final preparations to be ready to take on the featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski.
The Georgian-Spanish fighter made his debut as a mixed martial artist in 2015 and has gone undefeated event since. Now, though, he will face, by far, the toughest test of his career, as he will share the octagon against the Aussie, widely considered the best UFC featherweight fighter of all time.
The 27-year-old Topuria signed with the UFC when he had a record of eight wins and no losses and has since then won six straight fights (14-0).
Since the title bout against Volkanovski was announced, Topuria has been very confident about his chances against Volk and has repeatedly said in his interviews that he is going to finish his opponent.
What does Ilia Topuria’s nickname mean?
Topuria was born in Halle Westfalen, Germany, to Georgian parents. At a young age, the family moved to Alicante, Spain, where they have lived ever since.
Ilia and his brother Aleksandre started their first MMA steps at Climent Club, where Ilia started being called El Matador as a reference to the Spanish tradition of bullfighting and given the fact that Topuria has lots of power in his hands and exhibits great skill on the ground.
Topuria says that at first he didn’t like the name, since it was associated with the idea of killing the bull. However, in the end, he says that he has come to embrace the moniker, which highlights his finishing skills in the octagon.
“El Matador came from my gym, the Climent Club, many years ago. At first, they started calling me that and I didn’t like it very much because I associated it a lot with bulls and cruelty to animals. And I’m a pretty sentimental person about all that. But, over time, I started liking ‘El Matador’ more and more”, said Topuria in an interview.
Topuria has now the chance of a lifetime against Volkanovski, who will be back into the octagon almost four months after suffering an impressive KO loss against Islam Makhachev in the first round.