Ilia Topuria, the newly crowned UFC featherweight champion, has responded to Movsar Evloev’s callout, expressing reservations about facing him as his first title defense.
Ilia Topuria claimed the featherweight title with a knockout victory over in the main event of UFC 298 at Honda Center. Following the fight, Evloev, who recently defeated Arnold Allen, issued a challenge to Topuria.
“My congratulations to the new champion. I’m coming for you and taking that belt from you #UFC298.”
While not completely dismissing Evloev (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) as a potential challenger, Topuria expressed doubts about his suitability based on his fight record. Although Evloev remains undefeated, Topuria highlighted that all eight of his victories in the UFC have come by decision, without any submissions or knockouts.
“Movsar’s a good fight for me. I would love to fight him,” Topuria stated. “But the guy has eight fights in the UFC: eight decisions, zero submissions, zero knockouts. … Man, come on. He needs to finish someone.
“Maybe they can find someone from his home town. Maybe he can fight with his dad or something and finish him. But he needs to finish someone because the record he has right now – yeah, it seems nice: He’s undefeated. But the guy didn’t finish anyone, So he needs to do something.”
Topuria had previously dismissed other potential challengers such as Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez, and Brian Ortega. He reiterated his stance post-fight, emphasizing his desire for new challengers.
“All of them, they don’t make any sense for me right now,” Topuria asserted. “I need new challengers – new ones. There are some upcoming fights, and we’ll see how they’re going to play out. You’re going to see ‘El Matador’ for a while.”
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