There are only two days left for UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria to face challenger and former division champion Max Holloway in what will be the first world title defense by the Spanish-Georgian. The main event will take place at UFC 308, which will be held this Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. And all eyes are surely on this fight.

Although Topuria already attended the media day, he picked up the microphone again during the UFC 308 press conference. And fans surely watched every bit of it to find out the answer to a question that loomed in their minds for a long time now: is Ilia Topuria deaf? Well, that’s us saying it, but half the comment section on YouTube and social media and fans wonder whether the Spanish-Georgian fighter is actually losing his listening skills. But how did it all begin? Let’s find out!

The story behind Ilia Topuria’s alleged deafness

It all started on October 10th, 2024, when Max Holloway and Ilia Topuria appeared for an interview on ESPN MMA with Brendan Fitzgerald. The two fighters surely traded some serious verbal jabs; however, the last thing the Spaniard expected was that his opponent would mock him in front of the entire audience because of the way he communicated in English, his second language.

One of the instances where Ilia Topuria imitated Holloway’s bag punching drills and Max Holloway retaliated by saying that Topuria too does the same drills. He said in the interview, “What are you talking about? Same exact drill on top of your one bag. Same exact drill. What are you talking and you know it, You’re laughing because you know it.” However, Ilia Topuria was unable to understand the word ‘Drill’ and misheard it as ‘Joe,’ to which he replied with the simple question, Who’s Joe? “I don’t know who’s Joe; who’s Joe?”

This simple moment of miscommunication truly became a laughter fest for the fans, as they couldn’t help but keep requoting this moment in the comments while wondering if he actually had issues with his hearing. This wasn’t the only moment where Topuria struggled, though. The fighter also got stuck when it came to saying the following phrase in English: “You say the same thing all the time.” It is then that Max Holloway began to make fun of him, emitting sounds as if Topuria did not know how to vocalize. He further mocked the Spanish-Georgian by saying, “Speak, brother. Speak!” 

Witnessing such a scene, the featherweight champion truly got a lot more serious as he exploded against the American by asking him to speak in Spanish, Georgian, Russian, or German. A true moment of flexing by the polyglot. “I’m speaking in your language; let’s speak in Spanish! Let’s speak in Georgian! Let’s speak Russian! Let’s talk in German. What the f**k are you talking about, man?” Undoubtedly, Holloway’s plan to humiliate Topuria did not work in his favor, so he took another shot at Topuria, but since he could not speak Spanish as Topuria requested, Holloway used a Spanish football team instead.

Max Holloways gives the mocking a cultural turn

In the build-up to the fight, Holloway appeared before ESPM MMA for another interview, but this time with a Barcelona FC shirt to sting Ilia Topuria, who is a through and through Real Madrid fan. Apparently, the Spanish team decided to gift a jersey to the American fighter. So thanking them for the gesture, Holloway said, “Yeah, I got gifted from Barcelona, and they gave me the number 9 for striker. Coz they know.” 

He said, “I love them; they are amazing. I love the Spanish fans,” Holloway said. “They have given me this Barcelona shirt. I have the ‘9’ of a striker… you know,” he said in reference to the word ‘striker’ which in combat sports is used for, well, a striker like Holloway or Alex Pereira. In soccer, it is used for the attacking players in the team.

Just like Topuria did, Max gave his result for the Clásico. He predicted, “Barcelona will win 0-2,” indicating a win for the Blaugrana and for himself, over Real Madrid, and Madrid fan Ilia Topuria. He said, “So I guess Barcelona go 2 and 0 Saturday night.” 

Well, this trick surely must’ve caused some discomfort to Topuria, who is at loggerheads with the Spanish football board, La Liga, for setting up the date for El Clasico to be the same as the date for his fight. The featherweight champion even told reporters that he might knock out the head of La Liga instead of Holloway. He said, “Let’s see if I’ve made a mistake, and instead of knocking out Holloway, I have to knock out the person responsible for putting that match at the same time and on the same day as my fight.” Even when informed that it was a decision by the president of the league, Topuria continued with, “Then we will go for Javier Tebas. (La Liga president.) He’s next.”

Well, it surely looks like Topuria has a lot of rage inside. But would he be able to use it against Holloway at 308 to retain his title? Let us know in the comments.