If Ilia Topuria holds to his recent stipulation for a title fight with Max Holloway, it would run counter to the idea behind what Topuria wants to get his hands on to begin with, Holloway thinks.
UFC featherweight champion Topuria (15-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) said after this past Saturday’s hyper-dramatic UFC 300 “BMF” title win by Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC) that it’s likely the former champ had earned another title shot.
But then Topuria said he only would grant Holloway a chance to win the belt if the “BMF” belt Holloway got against Justin Gaethje was up for grabs, too. And while that may seem like a natural and reasonable request, it’s also made Holloway raise his eyebrow a bit.
“We’ll see what happens. I mean, that’s not a very BMF way to say it, you know?” Holloway said on “The Jim Rome Show.” “A BMF wouldn’t be like, ‘I’m not going to fight this guy unless this …’ That’s kind of un-BMF. That didn’t sound BMF the way he’s trying to demand it and say ‘I’m not going to fight …'”
Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight title. Volkanovski holds three wins over Holloway in featherweight title fights and is the only featherweight to beat Holloway the past decade.
But Topuria said absent that BMF belt, he isn’t interested in fighting Holloway.
“Without the BMF belt, I don’t want him at all,” Topuria said Monday. “If not, I’m going to fight with Volkanovski, who deserves the rematch more than him. Because (Holloway) has that (BMF) belt, I’m excited about that. That’s why I want him. He’s been saying, ‘Right now I have a lot of options’ and this and that. He doesn’t have any options. I’m the champion right now.”
Topuria thinks he could be down to put the featherweight title on the line for the first time – provided Holloway puts that BMF belt up – by this fall.
But Holloway still thinks the mere ask of that drops Topuria a peg.
“A BMF fights whenever – fights whoever, whenever, any weight, any time,” Holloway said. “That’s not the tone of a BMF, brother. We’ll see what happens. Whatever the UFC wants to do, they want to do. I just want to be in the octagon with him. I want to see what the hype is about.”
Topuria backed up his hype against Volkanovski. He’s the only undefeated champion in the UFC.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
