Ilia Topuria aims to defend his featherweight belt against Max Holloway in September but has claimed that a fight with Conor McGregor would be “the biggest fight in MMA history”, if the Irishman can also get past Michael Chandler on 30th June.
Ilia Topuria Wants That Red Panty Night as He Calls to Fight Conor McGregor
Although McGregor was not too complimentary of Topuria on his Duelbits livestream, labelling the Georgian “r*traded” and saying he doesn’t give him that “buzz”, the current champion has remained respectful in a bid to make the fight materialise.
In an interview with Andrew Whitelaw of Sportskeeda MMA Originals, “El Matador” said he is searching for that fight with the former two-weight champion, should they both be successful in their upcoming bouts.
Topuria said: “I hope to defend the belt against Max Holloway and then I want a fight with Conor McGregor. If he wins his upcoming fight (against Michael Chandler), that’s the fight I’m looking for – hopefully, that fight’s going to happen.”
The 27-year-old continued to pitch his dream scenario by stating: “(A fight with McGregor) will have the biggest ticketing, the biggest pay-per-view, the biggest everything. We’re going to have, like, 80,000 people watching the fight in the (Santiago Bernabeu)
When Topuria Expects To Return
Topuria later revealed that he is looking to make his first title defence near the backend of summer, preferably against Holloway.
He said: “My target is to come back in September, so right now we are in the conversations, so we will see. If Max Holloway is able to fight in September, we have a fight. If not, I don’t know. Maybe we are going to (come back) at the end of the year or something like that.
“Because I want to fight as soon as possible because the next year, I want to fight in Spain, so, I want to be ready for that date.”
As UFC 306 heads to The Sphere in Las Vegas on September 14th, Topuria and Hollway could be the first to headline at one of the most incredible venues mixed martial arts has ever seen.
Moving to eight fights unbeaten in the UFC against Holloway may also mean an explosive matchup against “The Notorious” could be on the cards.
How do you see a fight between Ilia Topuria and Conor McGregor playing out?
Featured image credits Embed from Getty Images
