Joe Rogan recently made an interesting claim about the featherweight title picture. Rogan commented Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria would not rematch at UFC 305 in Australia. Both fighters, on different occasions, refuted the UFC commentator’s claims about a potential rematch between the two.
I’ve made it pretty clear that I wanted to wait a bit, towards the end of this year… Questions were asked about was I gonna fight on the Perth card… [Topuria] was even getting asked questions; I reckon that’s where Joe Rogan got this, whether he got inside information.
Alexander Volkanovski via Mainevent
Joe Rogan recently talked about it with Max Holloway on a recent episode of the JRE. Rogan said he knew that Topuria turned down a rematch with Volkanovski at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. In the past, Topuria spoke of not wanting to give Volkanovski a home-crowd advantage for the rematch. As such, Volk believed Topuria’s comment about not wanting to fight in enemy territory was where Rogan got the information from.
🔥🚨NEW: Alex Volkanovski reacts to Joe Rogan saying Ilia Topuria turned down a rematch against him at #UFC305 in Perth, and says he was never offered the fight. 👀
“Obviously I’ve made it pretty clear that I wanted to wait a bit. Towards the end of the year. I know that is the… pic.twitter.com/Zv0gIkPnSc
— Parry Punch (@ParryPunchNews) May 1, 2024
Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria fought earlier this year in February. Topuria brutally finished Volk in the second round at UFC 298. He became the new featherweight champion and, since then, has not made any confirmatory statement regarding his next fight in the octagon.
Ilia Topuria refutes Joe Rogan claiming he turned down Alexander Volkanovski’s rematch
Ilia Topuria also clarified Joe Rogan’s statement on X. Topuria’s next title defense remains key news every fan looks forward to. He has the option of rematching Volkanovski or competing against a fresh challenger in Max Holloway.
Ilia Topuria claims he did not turn down any rematch with Alexander Volkanovski (Image via Sports Illustrated)Topuria took to X to clear out any confusion regarding his stance on fighting Volkanovski again. ‘El Matador’ said he never turned down the rematch with Volk as the UFC has never offered him this fight. The Spaniard also said he would become the first fighter to knock out Holloway. Topuria wrote that if Holloway wanted to fight, there was nothing more to discuss.
I never turned down the rematch with Alex as the UFC has never offered me this fight. As I’ve said many times before, I will be the first to knockout Holloway. Let’s keep this simple: Do you want to fight? If the answer is yes, there’s nothing more to discuss. Bring my belt and…
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) May 1, 2024
Ilia Topuria doubled down on his demand for a title fight with Max Holloway. He wanted Holloway to put his BMF title on the line. It seems like he is only interested in title fights, as there were talks of a potential fight with bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.
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