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There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big if you believe in yourself. And Ilia Topuria certainly believes.
He actually may believe a little too much, going from talking about who is (and isn’t) getting a title defense before he’s won anything to wearing and even snatching away Alexander Volkanovski’s UFC Featherweight Championship in the leadup to their UFC 298 main event. At times it felt like Ilia was taking things too far.
There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness and an even finer one between making the fans believe and making the fans wish you’d just shut up and fight.
UFC 298: Ilia Topuria deserved to be here
Thankfully, Ilia Topuria knows how to fight. One does not go 14-0 with 8 finishes if they don’t.
The only criticism that anyone could level at the German-Georgian-Spaniard is that he hadn’t fought enough ranked competition prior to earning a title shot. It was a fair criticism as, prior to Saturday, Ilia Topuria’s most notable win was a decision against former interim title challenger Josh Emmett.
It was a quality win but was it good enough? Was it enough to suggest that this man represented the new era, the changing of the guard, the new face atop the featherweight mountain? Or was he only getting this opportunity because the champion had already danced with everyone else?
Whether he deserved the shot or not, Ilia definitely wanted to believe he did, rocking the Conor McGregor cosplay throughout Fight Week, trying to convince everyone that he was coming to take over.
But trying to live out the dream of a man from 9 years ago, aside from being a bit tacky, only works if you can see it through to the end. Volkanovski had no problem letting Ilia wear his belt around on Wednesday because he still needed to get the job done on Saturday.
Alexander Volkanovski’s bark still has plenty of bite
Speaking of dreams, Alexander Volkanovski’s dreams have mostly occurred at press conferences while making light of any concerns being thrown at him regarding his age and his ability to still compete at the highest level. This is due to some setbacks or, as I should say, setback, since, prior to Saturday night, Volk’s UFC record was 13 and Makhachev.
A lot of questions have been asked during Volkanovski’s 4 year title reign, most of them being “Seriously, how great is he?” Ahead of 298, the question was “Is the greatness gone?”
It seemed a valid question to throw out after a 2023 that saw a successful defense against Yair Rodriguez sandwiched between two losses to UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev. The second of those two losses was particularly bad, seeing Volk take the fight on 10 days notice and get his head kicked off in the first round.
That moment raised the stakes for 298 considerably because Alex needed to prove that, while his extracurricular endeavors may not have gone as planned, he still ruled his own roost. The man hadn’t yet tasted defeat at 145 but he’d also blown out the candles on his 35th birthday, and the odds of success in the lighter weight classes go down considerably once that threshold is reached.
And, while it was certainly fun seeing how believable Volkanovski was in his Bad Grandpa getup, we don’t want to believe that Volkanovski really is old. Or maybe that’s just me because I’m only a year older than Volkanovski.
Then again, for me, finishing the story means getting through the two bags of Valentine’s Day chocolates I bought on the 15th because they were on clearance. I know I’m going to regret it later but I saved soooo much money…
Ilia Topuria and Alexander Volkanovski both came to take part
Both men certainly made the leadup to the UFC 298 fight entertaining and the fight itself delivered as well. The Man from Down Under exchanged kicks and combinations with the betting underdog throughout the first round, with the second offering much of the same. Volkanovski didn’t seem to be in any rush to make the fight a wrestling affair, although maybe he should have after the challenger exploded with a combination that ended in a right hand that put the champ on ice.
There really wasn’t much that Volkanovski did wrong or should have done differently. Ilia Topuria looked every bit on the champ’s level and, unlike Brian Ortega or anyone else who has tried to seize the throne, he got the finish. Volk’s reign ended in a bang instead of a whimper as “The Matador” proved to be The Bull as well.
Hopefully the talk coming out of this fight is on Ilia Topuria’s performance and not on Volkaovski’s decision to even take the fight. Yes, there is reason to question if Volk was at 100% when the knockout was only 4 months ago but there was little about Volk’s performance on Saturday that made it seem like he was still compromised. He chose to defend his title and he lost it to the better man.
So it appears that, in this case at least, the cockiness has been justified. Now we’ll get to see how Ilia Topuria fares against the ranked competition he skipped to get to the top, as fights against Rodriguez, Ortega, and Max Holloway are all on the table now.
That is, unless he keeps the Conor cosplay going and avoids all the deserving contenders in favor of a red panty night against Sean O’Malley. Maybe he’ll give us the Dirty Dancing remake we’ve all been waiting for. The world is his pickle.
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