Even his worst critics will admit that Conor McGregor has taken the sport of MMA to new heights. His UFC 229 clash against Khabib Nurmagomedov still remains the biggest, commercially most successful fight in the history of mixed martial arts. With his sharp wit, typical Irish sense of humor, historically great mic skills, and elite striking skills, the bombastic Dubliner brought many new eyeballs to the sport, with even Jon Jones crediting him for fast-forwarding the sport by “ten years”.

While Conor McGregor’s star may be quickly fading in the sport, and despite the recent controversies the Irishman has found himself in, he enjoys a lot of respect because of his iconic status in the sport, which has raised the profile of the sport. Among his admirers is the man whose career has striking parallels to McGregor’s and is seen as the potential successor of the former two-division champion, Ilia Topuria.

Ilia Topuria has a lot of admiration and respect for Conor McGregor

Topuria shocked the UFC world when he knocked out the seemingly unstoppable and invincible (at featherweight) Alexander Volkanovski to become the new UFC featherweight champion. After his victory, the Spaniard called out McGregor to fight him, which seems unlikely to materialize.

While this may lead some to think that the cocky, arrogant, and irreverent Topuria does not think highly of McGregor, it turns out it is quite the opposite. In a recent interview, ‘El Matador’ was asked his thoughts on the Irishman, and he had nothing but praise for the former champion.

In a recent interview with ‘Marc’ in Spanish, Topuria expressed his respect and admiration for McGregor’s contributions to the sport, saying “I really have a lot of admiration for [Conor McGregor] and a lot of respect for everything he did in the sport,” and felt that “stupid to hate him after everything he did in his personal life and all the achievements he had. I don’t like to judge people without knowing them. But he’s an icon in the sport.” 

Clearly Topuria holds McGregor is very high esteem and understands the immense impact the Irishman has had on MMA, his other shortcomings notwithstanding. However, he is still determined to fight the Irishman and do it soon.

Topuria thinks he will fight McGregor towards the end of the year

Ilia Topuria added that while he was looking forward to fighting Conor McGregor in the future, he felt the clock was ticking down rapidly on it, perhaps a reference to ‘Notorious’ being on the last legs of his UFC career. “The plans remain the same with the fight with Conor… But it would be now or never with him,” the featherweight champion said.

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Surprisingly, the Spaniard even claimed that McGregor was willing to fight him (which has not been confirmed by anyone except Topuria and therefore should be taken with a pinch of salt) and that the fans may see a potential McGregor-Topuria by the end of this year at the UFC’s first Spain card in the iconic Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid.

“My dream was to be the best; to have my Spanish ID. And now it’s to fight at the Bernabeu… He is the only one who is ready to do this event. Everything is lined up. I think we will have an event at the end of this year,” he added. While Topuria making these seemingly unsubstantiated claims may come across as strange to many, it may be part of his manifestation technique where he says things and makes it possible.

He did a similar thing in the run-up to his Volkanovski clash when he put the words “UFC Champion” in his Instagram bio to manifest himself becoming champion, which did he went on to do. What do you think about Topuria’s comments about McGregor?

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