The current UFC featherweight titleholder, Elijah Topuria, does not spare not only his opponents in the octagon, but also his sparring partners in the gym.
According to former UFC welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns, the future champion knocked out three of his teammates while sparring with them wearing boxing gloves in preparation for his challenger fight against Josh Emmett at Kill Cliff FC.
“This guy came to our gym and spent half of his camp here before the Emmett fight,” the Brazilian told Luke Thomas. “And he knocked out three of my teammates. Didn’t just drop them, he knocked them out. With big gloves. I’ll say it again – knocked them out flat out with big gloves.”
Burns does not recommend underestimating the wrestling skills of the Spanish-Georgian fighter.
“I’ve seen him wrestle. He’s not the biggest, tallest dude, but he’s very tough. We had a wrestling day and Topuria was practicing with a group of high caliber wrestlers. These were guys from freakin’ Dagestan. And this guy showed that he’s very strong and has good defense. He moved a Dagestani wrestler down. This guy can do everything.”
On Feb. 17 at UFC 298 in Anaheim, Elijah Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round and took the UFC featherweight championship belt from the Australian, moving up to No. 5 in the organization’s rankings of top fighters regardless of weight class.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/34053-topuriya-nokautiroval-troikh-sparring-partnerov-i-poborol-dagestantsa.html?rand=19907
