Movsar Evloev has fired shots at Ilia Topuria as the UFC Featherweight Champion continues his title celebration. Topuria earned the title by defeating Alexander Volkanovski via a brutal KO at UFC 298. The new UFC Featherweight Champion who is Georgian and Spaniard has earned fame in both countries.
Soon after winning the title, he was felicitated at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s home stadium. He has continued to receive felicitations in Georgia and Spain. The champion was recently also spotted at the Inter Miami soccer match where he met Argentine World Cup winner Lionel Messi. Topuria was left impressed by Messi’s personality.
Who saw this coming? #LionelMessi and #IliaTopuria 🫡 pic.twitter.com/XMSAhBKkdq
— Sportsmanor (@sports_manor) April 8, 2024
Ilia Topuria was also present at UFC 300 and witnessed Max Holloway’s legendary performance against Justin Gaethje. Holloway’s performance has catapulted him into talks of a title fight. However, no title defense has yet been announced for the featherweight champion.
#5 ranked UFC featherweight Evloev made fun of Topuria’s title celebrations. He also talked about how Topuria is postponing his title defense.
Movsar Evloev fires shots at the UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria
The Russian fighter took to X and uploaded a collage of edited pictures of the Georgian fighter. Topuria is seen showing off his belt in edited scenarios in the collage. Evloev captioned the post, “While champ is on the world tour to show his belt to everybody instead of defending it. I can fight twice and bash 2 other title contenders.”
While champ is on the world tour to show his belt to everybody instead of defending it. I can fight twice and bash 2 other title contenders pic.twitter.com/J0N9KegL0k
— Movsar Evloev (@MovsarUFC) April 17, 2024
Volkanovski, Holloway, Brian Ortega, and Yair Rodriguez are ranked above Evloev in the featherweight division. He might be indicating towards a fight against either of these fighters to get himself a title shot. However, Evloev has not fought too much recently either.
He made his UFC debut in April 2019 and fought only 8 times in five years. He fought only once in 2022 and 2023. In 2021, he fought twice. He has won all eight of his UFC bouts via decision.
Ilia Topuria hopes to face Max Holloway before the end of 2024
After winning the title in February, it seems that Topuria is hoping to defend the title at least once in 2024. Moreover, former champion Holloway will likely earn the contender’s spot.
After defeating Gaethje and earning the BMF title at UFC 300, Holloway called out Topuria and said, “I’m him, I’m him guys. There’s an ‘El Matador’, he is running away from a Bull at 145lbs, tell him to sign the damn contract. Spain, Hawaii, wherever.”
Topuria’s reaction after Holloway’s brutal KO win was captured and fans thought he was ‘scared‘. However, Topuria’s response to Holloway was cold-blooded.
Congrats on your performance Max . Respect your story and everything you achieved with a beautiful family . Hopefully we gonna share the octagon before the end of the year and trust me you gonna feel something that you never felt before . I will be the first one to take your…
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) April 15, 2024
“Congrats on your performance Max. Respect your story and everything you achieved with a beautiful family. Hopefully, we are going to share the Octagon before the end of the year, and trust me you’re going to feel something you never felt before.
“I will be the first one to turn your lights out,” Topuria claimed in a post on X.
As it stands, although Evloev, as an undefeated fighter, would be vying for a title shot, he may have to fight one of the higher-ranked fighters first. On the other hand, after the fantastic show at UFC 300, Holloway seems to be next in line for a UFC Featherweight Title shot.