UFC featherweight number five Iliya Topuria and reigning division champion Alexander Volkanovski have shared their vision of a potential bout between the two that, under certain circumstances, could take place before the end of this year.
“I am always confident in myself – I have no doubt that this will be an easy victory for me,” the Spanish-Georgian fighter said in the next edition of the MMA Hour program. “People say it’s going to be a tough fight for me, he says I’m the easiest fight of his career, but we’ll see. Keep up the good work, champ.”
“My official prediction is that I thought about it a lot, imagined knocking him out in the first two rounds, but now I’m leaning towards knocking him out in the first round. In a duel with me, he will not be able to go forward, especially with his style. I will finish him in the first round.”
The Australian, who appeared on the MMA Hour following a potential opponent, called his prediction nonsense.
“There is confidence, but there is nonsense,” Volkanovski commented on Topuria’s statement. “His words are not supported by anything and simply do not make sense. He says, ‘I’ll knock him out in the first round because I’m going to do it’, but has he even watched my fights?
“I don’t know if he really believes this, but I hope so. I have no doubt that he is confident in himself, and really believes that he can beat me. Maybe he meant it, and just plainly could not explain. Because now he is saying absolutely impossible things.”
This past weekend at UFC 290 in Las Vegas, Alex Volkanovski successfully unified the current and interim featherweight titles with a third-round TKO over Yair Rodriguez. After the fight, the Australian did not rule out both a duel with Topuria and another outing in lightweight and a rematch with Islam Makhachev, to whom he lost by unanimous decision in February of this year.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32054-volkanovski-otvetil-na-obeshchanie-topurii-nokautirovat-ego-v-pervom-raunde.html?rand=19907
