The undefeated Ilia Topuria earned a big win over Josh Emmett this past weekend to take his UFC winning streak to six fights, and he’s now caught the attention of featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who has signalled his interest in fighting him.
“I’m hearing a lot of people mentioning other guys, Ilia fighting other guys – I’m like, ‘No,’” Volkanovski said on the ‘DC & RC’ show with Daniel Cormier and Ryan Clark. “Don’t do it. Just give me a guy. Give me a contender. To be honest, I’m not going to say too much. I think he’s a good fighter. But the more I speak, the less I’m going to hype up the fight. I think he’s great.”
That being said, Volkanovski feels that his next opponent Yair Rodriguez is a bigger challenge, but after that it seems like he’d be happy to have Topuria be the next in line.
“I think it’s a great fight and that would work well on some people, but won’t work well on others,” Volkanovski said. “I want (new) guys. I want to be active. I was at a stage where I was like, ‘Give me the No. 1 guy.’ We’ve sort of cleared them. Everyone’s raving on about this guy. I’ve got Yair to worry about. I’ll worry about that first, because I see him as a much bigger threat than Ilia. I’ll make sure I go out there and do my business, and if that’s on the cards – again, I want to be active.
Of course it should also be noted that Volkanovski is also pursuing a lightweight title rematch with Islam Makhachev too, so it’s possible the now 5th ranked Topuria may have to fight again in the mean time anyway depending on how things go, but it bodes well for the division that new potential challengers like the 26-year-old are now emerging.
