Ilia Topuria beat Alexander Volkanovski, and he still thinks Volkanovski is the greatest featherweight who ever lived. He also says he has zero interest in running it back, because he likes the guy too much to punch him.
The former champion made the comments in an interview with Spanish outlet ABC (@abc_es) and @KOlmeneroMMA. Championship Rounds picked up the clip and posted it on X on Nov. 6.
“For me personally, he’s the best featherweight in history, above everyone,” Topuria said. He didn’t pretend the win never happened, either. “Yes, I beat him. I beat Max Holloway. I did things nobody else had done. But looking at his record over all those years, he’s accomplished much more than I have.”
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On a second fight, Topuria went somewhere you rarely hear a fighter go. “Honestly, I respect him so much and I’ve grown so fond of him that I couldn’t hit him,” he said. He also admitted the result wouldn’t be a lock. “It would be a very competitive fight. Just because I beat him once doesn’t mean he can’t beat me.”
Fresh off the Gaethje loss
The warmth toward Volkanovski came during a media run that has been anything but quiet. These are Topuria’s first interviews since losing to Justin Gaethje. He told @KOlmeneroMMA that “The fire inside me is even bigger now.”
He has also been candid about how that night ended. Speaking to @AdamCatterall, Topuria credited his brother with stopping the fight. “If he wouldn’t stop the fight, probably I wouldn’t be able to fight again in my life. I’m so grateful with my brother.”
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Gaethje, meanwhile, got none of the Volkanovski treatment. In the same ABC interview, Topuria dismissed him as a nobody and said Gaethje has no say in what comes next, framing any decision as one for the UFC and Topuria alone. He then floated a scenario where a fight between himself and Paddy would bump Gaethje, even as champion, to the co-main event.
What’s next
Topuria named his target and his month in a clip shared by FightLuck on X: “I’m coming back in April. Paddy, Paddy, Paddy.” In that same clip he called the Gaethje fight the worst day of his job, wondered aloud what was left for him after his next one, and raised the idea that he might even retire.
Dana White’s timeline lines up roughly. On Jim Rome’s show, White said, “He’ll come back in early 2027. We’re working on that.”
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My take: this is about the classiest thing a guy can say about someone he beat, and I believe he means it. It’s also easy to be gracious about a rematch you were never going to chase, because Topuria’s eyes are on Paddy and on getting his name back on top of a poster. The part that stuck with me more is the brother. Corners get crushed for pulling their guy too soon, and they get crushed for waiting too long. Here’s a fighter saying out loud that the stoppage may have saved his career, and that’s worth more than any GOAT ranking. April is the date he’s circling.
