Following his beautiful knockout of Max Holloway final weekend at UFC 308, Ilia Topuria stays not solely the featherweight champion of the world however is now the #4 ranked finest pound-for-pound fighter on your complete roster.
Even essentially the most die-hard Max Holloway followers had been pressured to confess that ‘El Matador’ was merely a lower above ‘Blessed’ on the night time out in Abu Dhabi, but tales of the Spanish-Georgian sensation within the coaching room paint an equally devastating image.
Former champion Eddie Alvarez reveals wild Ilia Topuria coaching camp story
Final weekend, your complete MMA world collectively stood as much as applaud Ilia Topuria as he scored a brutal KO over Holloway, just a few months after claiming UFC gold with an equally brutal KO of Alexander Volkanovski – the consensus two best featherweights of all time.
“At 145lbs, he’s going to be robust [for anybody] to cope with,” predicted former UFC light-weight champion Eddie Alvarez throughout a current interview with coach Tim Welch.
‘The Underground King’ then instructed an insane story about how he as soon as heard of Ilia Topuria knocking out three sparring companions in a single session, earlier than outgrappling a number of established wrestlers from Dagestan throughout his time coaching at Kill Cliff MMA.
“I heard by my Kill Cliff buddies that he went over there and buried – like knocked out – three guys in coaching camp and the Dagestanis couldn’t take him down, he was taking them down!
“I overhear issues in coaching and I’m extra involved with the coaching than the combat as a result of in a combat you solely get just a little little bit of time to show what you bought, however in coaching if you’re relaxed and doing this stuff constantly [it’s impressive].”
Topuria is now 16-0 as an expert and 8-0 below the UFC banner; opposite to fashionable perception, ‘El Matador’ began out as a submission specialist, having solely not too long ago fallen in love along with his knockout energy.
“To listen to that he went all the way down to Kill Cliff and knocked out three of his coaching companions and was willingly taking down these Dagestani guys, it’s like ‘The place and what holes are we coping with right here?!’
“He simply handled the quantity and endurance of Max Holloway, proper? If I’m listening to that he’s actually troublesome to take down and he began his profession simply subbing guys, this man is a weapon throughout… It’s going to be enjoyable to look at him transfer ahead.”
In case you are considering that this all appears a bit implausible, it’s value noting that Alvarez isn’t the one UFC fighter to assist this story.
Previous to UFC 308, welterweight Gilbert Burns would additionally share the identical story, albeit he was much more impressed with the truth that Topuria scored these three KOs “with the big [training] gloves on too.”
Again to Alvarez, who was devastated by the knockout loss suffered by Holloway, a lot in order that by no means desires to see ‘Blessed’ combating at featherweight once more.
“I like Max, me and my son had been crushed [but] I don’t like Max at 145… I really feel like he’s been making that lower a lot all through his profession and I actually favored him at 155, he was capable of put [Justin] Gaethje away and take Gaethje’s finest photographs.
“I feel that at 155, he takes these photographs, and he would be capable of give them again, [whereas] at 145, he’s drained there – he ought to be completed with that weight class.”
What do you suppose – ought to Max Holloway keep at 145lbs, or ought to he return to light-weight for the rest of his UFC profession?
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