Fresh off his stunning knockout win over Max Holloway to retain his undisputed featherweight title at UFC 308, Ilia Topuria is on top of the MMA world. And, as the MMA fanbase fantasy books “El Matador” for his next fight, the champion’s coach has shared his thoughts on his charge’s next move.
Chatting to Submission Radio, Jorge Climent chatted about Topuria’s next move, and said that he thinks the best next bout for him would be a lightweight title challenge against fellow pound-for-pound star, and reigning 155-pound king, Islam Makhachev.
“Islam I think is the fight,” he said.
“He fought Volk, he fought Holloway, now Islam.
“The great thing is he goes in the speciality of his opponent. If he can finish Islam… wow. I think this is very, very epic.”
Climent also touched on a topic that Topuria himself brought up in his post-fight press conference after UFC 308, as he said that Topuria’s preference wouldn’t be to knock out Makhachev, but instead he’d look to be the first fight to submit the Russian world champion.
“I think always the goal of Ilia is to keep the attention of the people,” he explained.
“And I think you have the attention of the people if you beat someone in their own (strength).
“Look, I saw Islam in the last fight with Volk. He caught him with the kick. But if you see his first fight with Volk, he suffered … I think it’s a good fight for Ilia.”
Talk also turned to a possible rematch with the man Topuria beat to win the featherweight title, with Alexander Volkanovski entering the Octagon to call for a rematch after Topuria’s win over Holloway.
It’s a fight that Climent can see happening, and the coach warned that he thinks that Volkanovski will be a very different fighter the second time around having had a suitable amount of time off following his knockout loss.
“I think Volk in a rematch is going to be more dangerous than a the first time,” he said.
“Because I think when he took the (first) fight, it was not the moment for a fight with Ilia.
“If I’m his coach, I tell Volk in that moment it’s not the right moment. You have a KO and you fight in. I don’t remember if what? Only two months? And he had (another) big KO.
“I think he has had the time to recover, to think and do a better strategy with Ilia.”
If that fight happens, Climent said Topuria wants it in Spain, rather than Australia, and said that he hopes the UFC will be able to make it happen.
“Ilia wants to fight in Spain, you know, because here now we have a lot of fans,” he said.
“We are talking about this a lot of time, asking for UFC came to Spain, and the other day Dana White said this (next) year (the UFC) is going to come here. I don’t know when they are going to do it, but I think his idea is to do it here.”