Ilia Topuria says featherweight division has ‘nobody’ to challenge him after UFC 298 win | ESPN MMA

Megan Olivi interviews Ilia Topuria backstage at UFC 298 after he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to become the new featherweight champion.

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All right Ilia you are still undefeated but now you are Undisputed you are the world champion you came over here so chill I know that you were expecting this but I just thought that maybe you would be I don’t know bouncing around that you became the world champion this

Is this is exactly what you thought was going to happen isn’t it like I said in the whole week I asked the God for all this this moments I visualize all this moment no one forced me to to to be here you know so I just felt very thankful

With with the life with all the moments that the life was giving me and I was just enjoying and here I am here you are with the belt yes world champion with the belt around your waist yeah you can see yourself in the camera and obviously I stop the look myself right

Now it looks great on you I want to talk about the fight what did you think of that first round actually all three judges gave the score card to vul but if you looked you know kind of on MMA sites and on the internet a lot of people were

Kind of split between you and vul I don’t know to be honest he surprised me he he was very fast with his Jabs his his movements like he the way he was standing in in the cage he surprised me a a little bit it it took me a lot of uh

A little bit of time to to study him right in in inside the cage but at the end of the day we we did the job you certainly did was it about getting his timing I mean what were the adjustments that timing and and and how fast he was

You know with W with the Jabs normally I’m I I I I do a lot of counters with the uh for the Jabs but with him it was a little bit difficult it was a a kicking heavy attack from him as well was that your expectation yeah I I I

Know that uh he he was coming out with with that strategy right with the high kicks and and to kick me with the caps and all that but who cares who cares right now who cares I I think we all care about you and just what really you would like to

Do now that you are the champion you have called all of these shots throughout your journey in the UFC I know that you asked for Conor McGregor but should he not be available or want to come down to 45 I mean when you look at the division who makes sense to you

In your mind who stands out right now no nobody the division really sucks we we we need a new challenge you know we need a couple of more more fights in the division so we’ll see what’s going to happen in the future and hopefully we’re going to have some clear challenger but

Right now there is nobody I know that you are constantly working on yourself so now that you have this belt I have no doubt that’s extra motivation for you what would you like to go back into the gym doing for sure I’m going to go back

And I’m going to train because I love to feel healthy you know and the sport is part of my life I don’t do it ja because I’m a MMA fighter right I do it because I I love to take care about my myself so I will be in shape my life looks like

A training camp always you know I’m I’m always in in a training camp so we’ll see I’ll be I’ll be waiting for for the UFC and we’ll see what what’s the future is holding for me well listen all of us UFC employees are crossing our fingers

For a trip to Spain thanks to you sir but before I let you go because I know you have lots of media your whole family is here ESPN has some more bling for you Sports Center top 10 ilot Toria the champion The Knockout over Alexander volkanovski sir you have earned the

Extra bling congratulations it all looks good on you thank you very much thank you we have money for the party tonight I don’t know if that’s worth anything but you can try Ilia thank you congratulations cannot wait to see you return really appreciate [Applause] [Applause] it