Among the most common things that MMA fighters suffer from is a staph infection. After all, the bacterial infection is a highly communicable ailment that most commonly affects the skin. Plenty of UFC fighters such as Benoit Saint-Denis, Paulo Costa, and Jiri Prochazka have suffered from it recently. Paulo Costa even needed to be hospitalized because of it before his UFC 294 clash against Khamzat Chimaev last year.

And that is perhaps why fans were so eager to conclude that Ilia Topuria had a staph infection after a mysterious hole was spotted on the featherweight champion’s knee ahead of his UFC 308 clash against Max Holloway this Saturday. But that was not all as some fans started coming up with more and more elaborate theories about ‘El Matador’ being shot or getting it in a street fight.

But alas all of these theories, including the much more plausible staph infection theory came to naught as Topuria revealed in a recent interview that the hole was because of a simple childhood injury. “I got a cut when I was a child with a crystal. When I was a child, I was playing with my friends, and yeah, I just got a cut with a crystal,” El Matador said.

The explanation for the Spanish national’s deformity may not be as wild as some of the fan’s speculations or as concerning as a staph infection. But it at least bodes well for his much-awaited first title defense against the legendary Holloway, for which ‘El Matador’ seemingly has the perfect plan.

Ilia Topuria to take Holloway down if he cannot knockout ‘Blessed’

Ilia Topuria wants to not only be the first person to knockout Max Holloway but also do so in record time. After all, ‘El Matador’ has vowed to take a leaf out of ‘Blessed’s book and point to the center of the octagon as soon as the fight begins, inviting Holloway to stand and bang with him.

However, since the former champion has already trashed this idea and made it clear he will not take ‘El Matador’s bait, the reigning champ has a backup plan. And a backup plan, that at least on paper, seems quite effective. After all, the Spanish-Georgian fighter has made it clear that he will employ all of his BJJ and Greco-Roman wrestling abilities and take Holloway down and maul him there.

‘Blessed’, after all, is the quintessential pure striker and doesn’t have any real ground game. However, he has an exceptionally effective, 85% takedown defense rate, which is why the Hawaii native has only ever been submitted once in his professional career. And this was way back in 2012 against Dustin Poirier at UFC 143. What are your thoughts on Topuria’s knee hole?