Ilia Topuria shocked the world at UFC 298 when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski. Meanwhile, a video has surfaced online where the Georgian-Spaniard is seen getting busted open in training days before his title fight at UFC 298. The video caught the attention of the fans as they shared their reactions to the sparring footage.

Ilia Topuria beat the odds to dethrone Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight championship last weekend. However, it seems like he had trained very intensely for his first-ever title fight in the UFC, as sparring footage revealed that his partner took things a little too far during a sparring session.

Before the UFC 298 fight, Ilia Topuria sparred with a Dagestani fighter by the name of Abdulaziz Datsilaev. The 24-year-old shared footage from the sparring session at Kill Cliff FC, where both fighters were going at each other during training. Topuria showcased some excellent takedown defense against Datsilaev but ended up getting a cut near his left eye.

However, Datsilaev did not seem to have intentionally hurt the newly crowned featherweight champion since he checked on the Georgian-Spaniard star after he got the cut. Nevertheless, the Dagestani fighter, who shared the sparring footage on Instagram, mentioned in the caption that he is aiming to one day compete in Dana White‘s promotion.

“I just want to get into the UFC,” said Abdulaziz Datsilaev, who boasts a 3-1 MMA record. Furthermore, it is important to note that Datsilaev was not in the same weight class as Ilia Topuria. Datsilaev is a lightweight fighter, and apparently, he did not hold back during training. When fans came across the footage on social media, they gave their take on the incident. Let’s see what they had to say.

Ilia Topuria can’t handle Dagestani fighters? Fans react

After witnessing the footage, some fans concluded that Ilia Topuria may not be able to handle fighters hailing from Dagestan. Moreover, some fans claimed that ‘El Matador’ was lucky not to have any Dagestani contenders in the featherweight division.

“It means that Spanish boy can’t deal with Dagestan fighters”

“He is lucky he have no dagestani in his weightclass”

Meanwhile, one fan expressed his disappointment with Abdulaziz Datsilaev for sharing videos of what happens during training. Meanwhile, some fans came to the support of Ilia Topuria, claiming that this was his way of preparing for the Alexander Volkanovski fight.

“Be real! Don’t post gym sh*t on some negative sh*t!!! Fake as f*!”

“Chill neighbor it was just sparring ilia was getting ready for fight cutting weight”

On the other hand, some fans showered praise on Abdulaziz Datsilaev. They believe that he is skillful since he was able to bust open Ilia Topuria. On the other hand, ‘El Matador’ was also recognized by the fans for his ability to block most of Datsilaev’s attempts.

“Good stuff. If you can look good against Ilia then you gotta have skills”

“I’d love to see this one happen”

“lol what. everyone is talking about is blood while topuria blocked all your attempts on the octagon”

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Dagestani fighters are known for being some of the toughest MMA fighters on the planet. They are usually grappling-heavy pressure fighters who seem to have stamina for days. As such, Ilia Topuria’s decision to engage in a rough sparring session to prepare against Alexander Volkanovski shows the lengths he went to to realize his dream. As we can all now say, the training paid off for Topuria.

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