Ilia Topuria has admitted he has “no f***ing idea” when he will return to the Octagon, with his first UFC lightweight title defence up in the air.
Topuria is one of the UFC’s biggest stars and became a two-weight champion by knocking out Charles Oliveira in June, when he won the lightweight belt after giving up the featherweight title.
The Georgian-Spaniard has been on a brief hiatus from mixed martial arts while finalising his divorce, but he recently returned to full training as he eyes his next fight.
And given “El Matador”’s stardom, many fans have expected that he will compete at the White House on 14 June, when the UFC hosts an unprecedented fight card. Yet that may not be the case, given what Topuria told streamer Adin Ross on Thursday.
“If I’m fighting in the White House, I don’t know,” said Topuria. “I don’t know.”
“In summer hopefully,” the 29-year-old said of his return, adding: “I know that I’m gonna fight in summer, but I don’t have any specific date or place that I know I’m gonna fight.
“It’s like: you don’t say to the UFC how to make fights and where to put you, and they don’t tell you how to fight. So, this is basically how it works.”
Also on the stream, Jake Paul called in to argue with Topuria about the influencer’s boxing ability, two months after Paul was stopped by ex-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
“If you think I’m a bad boxer, then we should spar,” Paul told Topuria. “Let’s spar. When I beat your ass in sparring, what will you say then?”
Topuria fired back, “Yeah, whenever you want, bro. As a boxer, you suck,” before referencing Paul’s broken jaw from his loss to Joshua: “Just get ready, because you’re gonna need another period of time to recover your jaw.”
“The thing is, I don’t need the jaw to be healed, because you’re not gonna touch me, bro,” Paul jibed. “You MMA fighters are all trash, I beat all of the best in your sport [in boxing matches].”
Paul previously knocked out ex-UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, after outpointing him in their first fight, and dropped and outpointed middleweight legend Anderson Silva. He also dropped fan favourite Nate Diaz en route to a decision win, stopped Mike Perry, and knocked out former One and Bellator champion Ben Askren.
“What the f*** are you talking about?” said Topuria. “Listen, we can spar whenever you want. I’m gonna give you a combo [...] and you are gonna be on your f***ing knees. And we’re talking about boxing, because if you really go into [an MMA] fight, and we do a full fight...”
“Oh, we can do that, too,” Paul interrupted. “We can do that, too. Everyone in your sport thinks they have hands, and we’re gonna find out, buddy. It’s gonna be funny when people see what happens.”
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