Ilia Topuria has a massive fight ahead of him, but he still has time for a couple of side feuds.
Ahead of his first featherweight title defense against Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26, Topuria has found himself embroiled in verbal beefs with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad and now, former two-division champion Conor McGregor.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Topuria criticized Holloway for losing to McGregor in 2013, well before the two stars entered their primes. McGregor responded on social media, praising Holloway and warning Topuria that he could lose his title next Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
Conor McGregor defends Max Holloway from Ilia Topuria's comments pic.twitter.com/JL1e9LQ7tm
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“Nah, [Holloway is] the real deal,” McGregor wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “Always was, always is. ... One thousand percent he became way better after losing to me. He actually became an all-time great fighter after losing to me. This is a stellar fight, folks! He took moves as well with him. He became ambidextrous after fighting me. He can fight in both stances now as good as each other.
“He will be very hard to catch for the little man. Don’t walk into a crushing blow, bro. He is strong, too. And very experienced. One hundred percent! Big fight feel for me here, folks! Oh yes, let’s go!”
Topuria didn’t take kindly to McGregor’s response and while he agreed Holloway has improved since that long-ago fight, he believes it was due to Holloway being ashamed to lose to a fighter of McGregor’s quality.
“One thousand percent Max has improved after fighting you,” Topuria wrote. “He must have realized that if he wanted to make a living from this, he couldn’t be so bad as to lose to someone like you. Nowadays, he beats you easily.
“Dustin [Poirier] knocked you out in the rematches, Nate [Diaz] beat you two times, Khabib [Nurmagomedov] humiliated you, and Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] gave you a master class in boxing at 50 years old. Take a seat, kid. You’re a fake fighter.”
The fighters continued to trade insults on social media, though both later deleted their comments.
Topuria will have to focus on the task at hand with UFC 308 fight week just around the corner. He meets Holloway, a former UFC featherweight champion and the current “BMF” champion in the Oct. 26 main event.
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