Ilia Topuria reacts to Max Holloway’s sensational KO over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300

UFC Featherweight Champion Illia Topuria has admitted that he’s probably going to share the Octagon with Max Holloway following UFC 300.

Holloway challenged Justin Gaethje for the BMF hardware inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 13th. While Gaethje had the edge in power, he struggled finding “Blessed” all night. Holloway was picking “The Highlight” apart before finally scoring a buzzer-beater knockout with just one second remaining in the fight.

Topuria was in attendance, and he has realized that Max has probably earned a shot as his 145-pound gold.

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Max Holloway Gets Attention of Ilia Topuria Following UFC 300

During an interview with ESPN Deportes, Ilia Topuria reacted to Max Holloway’s performance at UFC 300.

https://twitter.com/CCLegaspi/status/1779401732029915368

“Its clear for me, my next fight is against Max Holloway, congratulations and enjoy tonight, but after fighting me he will have to go back in the line”

A few days ago, Max Holloway’s manager Tim Simpson told Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour” that Holloway feels confident that he can defeat Topuria handily.

“Options. He really wants to fight [Ilia] Topuria, he feels like he’s going to whoop him, his words. He’ll do it anywhere,” Simpson said of Holloway. “He can [move back to 145], all of that internal discussion, obviously a challenge in front of him…you hear that Islam Makhachev is gonna fight in June, I don’t know who he’s going to fight…”

It wasn’t long ago when Topuria told Helwani that the likes of Max Holloway should just retire because he won’t be receiving another featherweight title shot.

“I’m going to beat a guy that whooped his ass three times. How? It doesn’t make any sense. Max, Yair, Brian Ortega, all of them, they can go and retire. I’m never going to give them a chance to fight for the title,” Topuria added.

It appears Topuria has been forced to change his tune.