Max Holloway respects Ilia Topuria’s skills ahead of their lightweight title bout at UFC 308 on Saturday, but he doesn’t understands a few things about his opponent.
Topuria captured the UFC belt by stopping Alexander Volkanovski in shocking fashion earlier this year, and now faces the man that has given the MMA world one an all-time memorable moment with a last-second knockout over Justin Gaethje to claim the BMF belt. Topuria challenged Holloway to do his “point down” call in the first 10 seconds of the bout rather than the final ones, and Holloway thinks that’s just Topuria being unoriginal.
“It just makes no sense,” Holloway said at the UFC 308 media day in Abu Dhabi. “At the end of the day, to me, I don’t think he deserves. You gotta earn that right. I don’t think he deserved that right. I mean, you know the guy that he’s copycatting. This guy’s a copycat. Down to the tattoos, his aura, to the way he’s approaching fights. The guy’s a copycat and you’re best friends with the guy he’s trying to copy.
“At the end of the day, I think you got to earn that moment. I believe he could have earned it with Josh Emmett in their five-round war. Josh Emmett was trying to swing. If you guys go back to that fight ,and watch what happened, when Josh Emmett was trying to swing, someone shot and someone hold someone down for the rest of the fight, so I think the moment needs to be earned. He’s just trying to steal stuff. He’s already trying to steal one person’s aura, and now he’s trying to steal somebody else’s thing, so it’s amazing.”
Holloway called Topuria’s mind “very interesting” with the way he speaks and acts going into a fight, but “if that’s what it takes to be the best version of himself come Saturday night, so be it.”
“I’m more confused about everything he’s saying about me not wanting to fight him, me getting forced to fight him,” he said. “He got me out here feeling like how he looked after my Gaethje fight. It’s crazy.”
Having said all that, Holloway does not underestimate a man that has won seven straight inside the octagon and 18 overall as a MMA fighter.
“He’s good,” Holloway said. “A lot of people forget that when he came into the UFC he got brought in as a grappler and wrestler, that’s what he was, and he came to the UFC and started knocking people out. His boxing is nice. As a fighter, you cannot be a hater and say he’s not good. Is he proven? He did what he had to do, when he had to do it, to get to the position he has, so there’s no disrespect to that. But he get to see me come Saturday night, so that should be fun.”
UFC 308 will mark Holloway’s 16th five-round fight since joining the UFC in February of 2012, three years prior to Topuria’s first MMA bout. Yet, “Blessed” doesn’t feel in disadvantage being five years older than the current champion.
“I’m just a couple years older than him,” said Holloway, who has more than double the experience in terms of MMA bouts with 34 appearances. “I’ve been here, done that. A lot of people keep forgetting how young I was. I think ESPN posted it. When I was at his age, I had all my title wins and title defenses, so that’s just how that goes. … I know he talked about his cardio. He believed he has cardio, but most of the time, his cardio is outshining the opponent’s cardio because he’s hurting them early in their fights. The beautiful thing is guys, I just cannot wait, man. I can’t wait. There’s going to be something special. Tune in Saturday night.”
