Ilia Topuria targeting September clash with BMF titleholder Max Holloway: ‘We are in the conversations’
Ilia Topuria knows the who. Now he’s just waiting on the when.
After Max Holloway’s incredible buzzer-beating KO of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, ‘Blessed’ was all but guaranteed a chance to challenge ‘El Matador’ for the featherweight title.
During a recent interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Topuria revealed that Holloway will be his first challenger with a target date of September, presumably at UFC 306 when the promotion makes its debut inside The Sphere in Las Vegas.
“My target is to come back in September. Right now we are in the conversations,” Holloway said. “If Max Holloway is able to fight in September, we have a fight. If not, maybe we are going to the end of the year or something like that. I want to fight as soon as possible because next year I wanna fight in Spain.”
Though he has yet to defend his 145-pound crown since his sensational second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski in February, Ilia Topuria is already making an itinerary that will take him into 2025 and beyond.
Once he takes care of some business with Holloway, the Georgian has his sights set on a big-money matchup with Irish megastar Conor McGregor.
“I hope to defend the belt with Max Holloway, and then I wanna fight with Conor McGregor,” Topuria added. “It’s gonna be the biggest fight in MMA history.”
Ilia Topuria not interested in a superfight with Islam makhachev… for now
Topuria is even open to a potential scrap with Islam Makhachev — assuming the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ continues to reign over the lightweight division with an iron fist.
“Maybe [I could fight Islam] in the future,” Topuria said. “Right now I just see the Max Holloway fight, the Conor fight. Maybe if [Islam] keeps defending the belt and he keeps becoming bigger and bigger, maybe one day we can see that fight too. But for the moment he’s not in my list.”
