Alexander Volkanovski does not agree with Ilia Topuria’s plan not to fight the biggest contenders of the featherweight division in case he wins the belt this weekend.
Topuria is certain that he will win at UFC 298 this weekend when he faces the division champ. In line with this, the challenger already shared some of his plans after securing the title, saying his main focus is getting a match against Conor McGregor. “El Matador” also expressed a lack of interest in defending the belt to the division’s top contenders, including Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez, and more.
“Max, Yair, Brian Ortega, all of them, they can go and retire,” said Topuria last week. “I’m never going to give them the chance to fight for the title.”
Topuria has a very distinct plan when he becomes the champion of the class weight. Aside from ignoring the names mentioned above, the 27-year-old also turned down the idea of fighting bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley for a champ vs. champ fight and even the grudge fight between him and Paddy Pimblett. For the Spanish fighter, McGregor is the certain match that he’ll only take. Volkanovski doesn’t like any of this.
For “The Great,” being replaced by another fighter as the new champion is inevitable. Yet, the current champ is hoping to hand it to a fellow who has plans of “playing the game.”
“There’s playing the game, and then there’s things like him saying he doesn’t want to fight all the contenders,” Volkanovski said in an interview on mainevent. “What is a great champion? I pride myself and I try and be a great champion, you know what I mean? And when my time is done, I want to- I’m hoping that there’s a great champion after me. And we definitely don’t want a champion sitting there, not wanting to fight all the top contenders.”
