Ilia Topuria blasts 'hypocrite' Islam | MMA News
Former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria vacated the 145-pound championship to transfer up to the light-weight division and challenged for a second divisional UFC title. He’ll get that alternative at UFC 317 but he isn’t getting to battle who he needed.
Topuria needed to face the highest pound-for-pound fighter Islam Makhachev but Makhachev relinquished the light-weight title to transfer up to the welterweight division for the identical causes Topuria modified weight lessons. Topuria considers Makhachev a ‘hypocrite’ and believes the Dagestan fighter ran from a battle.
“(Islam) is the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever seen,” Topuria not too long ago stated in a press convention (h/t Marca, Championship Rounds). “He said he didn’t want to give me the opportunity because I was the little guy, and now the little guy is the one looking for the same opportunity I was looking for. How are you going to criticize my decision when you’re doing the same thing right now? I’ve never seen more hypocrisy in my life.”
Topuria has no intentions of chasing a battle with Makhachev in the welterweight division.
“Why chase him?,” Topuria stated. “If someone runs away, you don’t have to bully them. If he runs away, we have to let him get away. I don’t want to fight people who don’t want to fight me either.”
Topuria faces former light-weight champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant light-weight title in the UFC 317 major occasion on June 28. Makhachev is predicted to battle newly topped welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena later this 12 months.
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