UFC 298: Islam Makhachev’s Victory Over Alexander Volkanovski Gets No Special Attention From Ilia Topuria as He Touts His Unbeaten Status- “So He Has the Belt”

Ilia Topuria will probably face his toughest opponent to date when he takes on Alexander Volkanovski at UFC  298. The #5 ranked featherweight is still unbeaten and has already hyped up the clash. “El Matador” recently made an appearance at the MMA FightingonSBN show with Ariel Helwani. While speaking to Helwani the 27-year-old seemed confident of taking the belt away from “Volk”.

Not afraid to ruffle feathers, Topuria has already taken the battle to the champion on social media a few times now. He also engaged in a war of words with Sean O’Malley recently. Let us delve into the details to find out what the challenger has in store for us.

Ilia Topuria confident of winning the belt at UFC 298

Alexander Volkanovski is walking into the fight after suffering a defeat against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294. The former rugby player took the fight at very short notice and even moved to the lightweight division. However, “Volk” is now back in his division where many consider him the best. “El Matador” while speaking to Helwani about the loss gave a very different answer which might not impress the champion.

Topuria is known to have supreme confidence in his ability and backs it up with his performance inside the Octagon. During the recent YouTube video Topuria was asked whether the loss would affect the champion in the fight, the 27-year-old said: ” I don’t know because I don’t know how it feels when someone lose because I never lost in my life in a professional career I mean. So I don’t know how he feels but even if he wouldn’t fight with Islam. The result will be the same and we were supposed to fight in January. I don’t know if you know that in Canada, so he has the belt one more month.”

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” El Matador” holds an impressive record to date and is still undefeated in the division. He is coming into the fight with a lot of hype because of his stellar performances and his striking ability. His performance has impressed one and all. Even Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coach Javier Mendes seems impressed by the 27-year-old.

Javier Mendez speaks very highly of Ilia Topuria

In a recent episode of his podcast coach Javier Mendez was asked about the recent verbal spat between Topuria and O’ Malley. The host even asked as to whether the pair would engage in a fight and who would win. While speaking to the host Mendez revealed that he had a good look at Topuria, when the challenger was working out at the UFC’s performance institute in Las Vegas. While Mendez did not have the opportunity to see O’Malley from close quarters, he looked impressed by the 27-year-old.

He said: “I don’t see him [Sean O’Malley] manhandling Topuria for any reason. You know, I trained yesterday and Topuria was working out at the UFC training center. Guy’s pretty solid, you know. He’s pretty solid, man. You know, I don’t know, I haven’t seen Sean O’Malley personally, so until I see him personally like I’ve seen Topuria in person, I’ll make my judgment then. But I can tell you that I’m very impressed with Topuria.”

While “El Matador” is high on confidence, facing Volkanovski is a different ball game altogether. The 35-year-old has even issued a warning for the challenger and has promised to teach the Spaniard a lesson. Who do you think will win the fight at UFC 298? Let us know in the comments.

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