Ilia Topuria confirms Max Holloway’s BMF title not at stake

Ilia Topuria has confirmed Max Holloway’s BMF title won’t be up for grabs within the UFC 308 predominant event, and he’s accepting of that.

Before the matchup between Topuria (15-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC) was signed and official for the Oct. 26 headliner at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, the reigning featherweight champion said he wanted the BMF strap, which “Blessed” won with an epic fifth-round finish of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, to be at stake.

But then the negotiations happened, and Topuria said the conclusion was reached that his belt shall be the just one wrapped across the winner on fight night.

“No, the BMF title will not be going to be on the road,” Topuria told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “To be honest, I don’t care. They took that call and at the tip of the day it’s like, once I’m going to beat him he can’t say he’s a BMF or nevertheless they wish to call him. I’m just concentrating on my title defense and that’s it. I don’t care about the rest.”

Topuria refused to hypothesize exactly why the BMF belt was put to the side for this fight. He said it was a promotional decision, and once it was made he shifted his concentrate on the competition itself.

The boldness from Topuria since he won the featherweight title with a second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February has been unmatched, and he said immediately post-fight that he could be the primary to knock out Holloway in MMA competition.

Topuria isn’t backing down from that prediction, and in actual fact, he’s doubling down on it.

“Little question about that,” Topuria said. “What makes me so enthusiastic about this fight is that nobody could knock him out. There’s no way I’m not going to knock him out. I shall be the primary one to knock him out because each time I watch him fight I’m like, ‘I’m way higher than him.’ If you happen to put me with him in kickboxing or boxing, even in a chess match, I beat him. Whatever you should do, boy, I can beat you.

“I respect Max Holloway. He’s been an ideal fighter. He gave us great fights. He appears to be a very good person. I respect him. But I don’t know, I feel like I’m way higher than him in every single place. It’s going to be an entire masterpiece. You will notice. I’ll knock him out in the primary round. There isn’t any doubts about that. It’s going to be much easier than with Volkanovski, because I considered Volkanovski is way harder matchup for me, and he beat that guy 3 times.”

For more on the cardboard, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.