The fact that UFC 308 star Ilia Topuria and consensus superstar Conor McGregor would come to clashes was no big takeaway. McGregor’s blueprint to double-division championship and his pay-per-view spotlight is up for the taking. The Spaniard consequently did take it up. With ‘The Notorious’ having held gold at 145-pound before, a Topuria-McGregor dynamic seemed about right. But now that it has fallen apart, Topuria goes on the “Connie caricature.”
McGregor recently spat on ‘El Matador’ who returns for the UFC 308 (ESPN+ pay-per-view) top bill. Topuria opened up about his ongoing feud with Conor McGregor, theorizing why the Irishman regularly deletes his viral tweets after a said spat. The Georgian-born fighter billed him as a “pu**y” and forgettable entity in UFC’s pound-for-pound hierarchy. He also presented he does it out of his inner childlike insecurities.
He’s a pu**y. He’s like a small kid. He’s like a kid. I insult you, I write some sh*t on social media, and then I delete it. Well, …go fu*k yourself…I don’t know. At this point, he talks about everyone. So, it’s not anything special, you know? He talks about everyone every time. So, I don’t know.
Ilia Topuria to CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri for SHAK MMA (@ShakMMA)
When the Alicante-Georgian fighter spiked gold at UFC 298 PPV this February, he was in the top running as a PPV spotlight. He made the Forbes España’s ’30 Under 30′ list and was featured as a top guest on national tele. The only UFC competitor on the list of the 10 highest-paid sportsmen was McGregor. The Team Climent Club MMA’s featherweight coach Jorge Climent poised him to sell out UFC events at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu.
Ilia Topuria says he’d beat Conor McGregor in his prime:
“MMA has evolved. He was really good in the stand-up, but on the ground he was always terrible.
I’d beat him in his prime, at any time… wherever, whenever, it’s not a competition. Let him keep drinking whiskey.”
(via.… pic.twitter.com/3T4jKh6NDH
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 13, 2024
Conor McGregor and Ilia Topuria continue to go back and forth 🍿👀#UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/88Wt9kaxhE
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 16, 2024
So the clash of heads had to be. After UFC 298 in Anaheim, he did call out McGregor. But angsty on his MMA return, McGregor posted ‘notorious’ disses on a tweet-and-delete spree and hyped up a promised comeback that never happened. Away from a Connie comeback, Topuria canceled ‘red panty’ night aspirations and hit back. Now, he takes anything McGregor says with a grain of salt. He is also doubling down his hate towards any McGregor association.
UFC champ Ilia Topuria mocks Max Holloway for losing to Conor McGregor
The Topuria-Conor McGregor feud was somehow, oddly, meant to be. Ahead of UFC 308 pay-per-view though, Max Holloway ‘oddly’ gets in the mix.
Ilia Topuria made within a disclosed bracket of $350,000 for his title win. He wants to earn more and be the better McGregor by the end of 2025. If he logs in a successful defense of the gold, he is prime for a headlining event in Spain’s Santiago Bernabeu. UFC CEO and brass have said that there are complications in hosting at the stadium template, but it’s still a dream.
European-based OKTAGON 62 at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt recently sold 58,000 gates in pre-sales; a feat more than any UFC record! European bases proved their devotion to lobbying behind McGregor; they proved that when multiple countries came behind Topuria. Hence Topuria is primed for the charge. Holloway challenges the featherweight gold at the October 26 main event as the only deterrent.
He dropped a UD to McGregor in 2013. However, the latter praised him for putting on a 13-fight winning streak afterwards, including the finish of Jose Aldo. Topuria fired back on the now-defunct tweets.
100% Max has improved after fighting you. He must have realized that if he wanted to make a living from this, he couldn’t be so bad as to lose to someone like you. Nowadays, he beats you easily. Dustin knocked you out in the rematches, Nate beat you two times, Khabib humiliated you, and Floyd gave you a master class in boxing at 50 years old. Take a seat kid. you’re a fake fighter
Ilia Topuria via X (@Topuriailia)
Ilia Topuria traded more words with “fake fighter” Conor McGregor ahead of his #UFC308 title defense vs. Max Holloway. pic.twitter.com/HssJgKyMEu
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) October 16, 2024
100% Max has improved after fighting you. He must have realized that if he wanted to make a living from this, he couldn’t be so bad as to lose to someone like you. Nowadays, he beats you easily. Dustin knocked you out in the rematches, Nate beat you two times, Khabib humiliated… https://t.co/OpKVqL4gqM
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) October 16, 2024
Holloway did make substantial leaps and even won the “BMF” title at the 155-pound mark. However, Topuria fired back, dubbing anyone who loses to ‘fake fighter’ McGregor as no real BMF. As such, this triangle and dynamic banter is one for ages.
