After Ilia Topuria’s Refusal to Fight Max Holloway, Joe Rogan Crashes UFC Champ’s Ambitions in Unfiltered Take

Ilia Topuria recently defeated Alexander Volkanovski from the 145 lbs throne at UFC 298 with an impressive KO in the second round. Even Joe Rogan and Max Holloway complimented him for his performance in the recent JRE MMA 155 podcast. The million-dollar podcaster was all praises for Topuria for his impressive performances in the recent past. However, he had a problem with the fighter’s dreams of battling in the 155 weight class. 

Rogan and Holloway believe that Topuria would be better for the 145 weight class than 155 and they have strong reason to support their argument. 

Joe Rogan cautions Ilia Topuria about his 155 dream

The crux of the matter is that Topuria refused to fight a rematch with Alexander Volkanovski and even refused to fight Max Holloway for his first featherweight title defense. He chose Brian Ortega to be his opponent for this belt. Max Holloway just had a three-fight streak and had a legendary KO over the former #2 lightweight Justin Gaethje. However, ‘El Matador‘ seems to have other plans because, according to him, Holloway would not put his BMF title on the line. 

Joe Rogan finally spoke up about this in his podcast and said that 155 might not be a good plan for Topuria. He said, “The Jai Herbert one was amazing, that was one after the head kick, knocked him out, in the second round. And that’s 155, you know he is a small 155, that’s not the weight class for him [Ilia Topuria]. 145 is perfect but it’s just I mean he can fight 155 too make no mistake about it just like you did.” Rogan thinks that it is better for Topuria to not increase his weight class even though he was successful in beating Herbert. 

Topuria defeated Jai Herbert in UFC Fight Night in 2022 and Herbert is a pretty tall and strong man, according to Rogan. He also stated that Topuria’s refusal to fight Volk in UFC 305 in Perth was not the right move on his part, since Volk is a legend. 

Joe Rogan exposed Ilia Topuria’s plans

‘El Matador’ stated that he did not want to give fights to the legends already sitting on top of titles and would have a rematch with Volk only for one reason. He would fight with Volk because “he was a good person” and wanted to clean the weight class a bit for the newer generation to enter.

However, Rogan did not seem to be fine with that decision and explained, “But I guess he feels like he’s the champ, he can call the shots. I know that he turned down the Perth one — [UFC] 305, the Volkanovski rematch.” Topuria also went on social media and talked about his bouts and said, “I decide who, when, and where.”

Topuria even revealed that he would fight Max Holloway only if the BMF title was on the line for both of them, and Holloway rebuked him. In an interview with Jim Rome, the BMF winner said, “A ‘BMF’ fights whatever, fight whoever, whenever, any weight, any time, and that’s not a tone of a ‘BMF.”

Who do you think will Ilia Topuria fight next? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.