LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Alexander Volkanovski sees Ilia Topuria as easy work.
Last night (Sat., Jul 8, 2023), Volkanovski defended his Featherweight title as he put on an absolute clinic at UFC 290 when he dismantled Yair Rodriguez and finished him in the third round via TKO (watch highlights) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After his TKO win, Volkanovski revealed to Joe Rogan that he needs shoulder surgery, but then during the UFC 290 post-fight press conference (watch here), he downplayed his upcoming surgery and said he’ll be back ASAP.
“I mean, I didn’t mean to scare everyone with that,” Volkanovski told reporters. “When I say I’m gonna do that, it’s not a big deal. I’ll be back in ASAP. It will be a quick one, just need to get something sorted. But I’ll be training a lot.”
With his domination of Rodriguez, the question is, who is next? Volkanovski obviously wants to run it back with Islam Makhachev to try and become a ‘champ-champ.’ Still, he knows there is another surging Featherweight contender that wants his shot – “El Matador.”
Volkanovski isn’t shying away from a matchup with Topuria; in fact, he sees it as an easy payday.
“It’s funny with this one. You want to talk up your opponents, right?” Volkanovski told reporters. “I mean, he’s gonna talk his sh-t. I can say whatever I want to, you know, people don’t have to believe it, but…maybe I shouldn’t say how easy I think that fight is going to be. Because then people might not be interested, but he’s going to talk his sh-t, and people are gonna want to see me punch him in the face, so it don’t matter. But I look at that [fight] as again, no disrespect to the bloke but the shi-t he is doing ain’t gonna work on me, and hopefully, you’ll get to see that soon.”
Volkanovski and Topuria faced off as the champion left the cage on Sat., and “The Great” thought his potential opponent would be a little taller.
Topuria is coming off a five-round beat down of Josh Emmett at UFC Jacksonville that secured him a date with Volkanovski at some point.
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This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
