UFC featherweight No. 9 Ilya Topuria, who will share the Octagon with Josh Emmett this weekend, is confident that a win in this matchup will make him the number one contender and lead to the winner of the unification bout between Alex Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez.
“I’m next in line for a title fight,” Topuria said, answering journalists’ questions. “Who is more worthy than me to fight for the title? Nobody. So I’m next”
“I don’t look behind anyone’s back, ever, I just have confidence in the hard work that I put in at all training camps. Confidence doesn’t come out of thin air. I work really hard and I know that I’m the best”
“I’m going to finish off Volkanovski in the first round. Of course, it will be a little more difficult to beat whoever is the best fighter regardless of weight. It will be a bigger fight than if Yair beats Alex and I beat Yair. Because Yair lost a lot of fights – Max Holloway, Frankie Edgar, he has a lot of defeats. That’s why I prefer to fight Alex and take the title from him.”
Recall that the fight between Ilia Topuria and Josh Emmett on June 24 will headline the UFC on ABC 5 tournament in Jacksonville, and Alex Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez will unify the titles on July 8 at UFC 290 in Las Vegas.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/31883-iliya-topuriya-obeshchaet-nokautirovat-aleksa-volkanovski-v-pervom-raunde.html?rand=19907
