Ilia Topuria is talking the talk, but will he be able to back it up by action? The undefeated featherweight will have the opportunity to become the champion of the division at UFC 298, as he takes on Alexander Volkanovski. Ahead of the fight, he has hyped this match-up himself and made some bold claims. Witnessing this, the bantamweight champion of the UFC has made some intriguing comments.

It bears mention that Sean O’Malley and the featherweight title challenger have gone at it with each other in the past. So, how does he perceive this match-up and Topuria’s mindset going into it?

Sean O’Malley warns Ilia Topuria

Topuria is quite an outspoken personality. He has been vocal about stunningly defeating the champion and even made claims about moving up in weight to challenge Conor McGregor. Meanwhile, O’Malley, his potential opponent, thinks Topuria might be biting off more than he can chew with such pompous claims, especially if he loses this next fight.

On his podcast, O’Malley said, “Ilia, is he going to get the f*cking job done? Ilia vs. Volk. He better hope he does, ’cause he’s talking a lot of games. He’s got a documentary going coming out, he’s got a f*cking movie coming out. He’s calling out Conor McGregor. Like if he loses to ‘Volk, he is irrelevant.”

O’Malley does make some coherent points. In the past, several combat athletes have been trolled after getting defeated despite big talk. However, there might be a vested interest at play for O’Malley to make such comments.

The rivalry between O’Malley and Topuria

Both combatants are young and on top of their respective divisions However, despite the weight disparity, it appears that they might clash in the future. Last month, both fighters engaged in a hostile tussle online. In addition, Topuria also unveiled that he wanted to fight O’Malley, but the bantamweight declined and now the Spaniard is not interested in fighting him.

On X, while responding to a dig at him made by O’Malley, Topuria said, “I offered to fight you, but the UFC told me that you are only good for fighting in teenagers’ places because that’s your only fan base. Our fight will never happen. After fighting Volk, I will fight Conor. and you will come as a fanboy. After seeing your PPV numbers, the only thing I can offer you is that you fight in the preliminaries of my card.”

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