Max Holloway mocks Ilia Topuria for silly challenge: This isn’t for the ‘dumbest mother effer’ belt

Featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has made all kinds of predictions for his upcoming fight at UFC 308, but don’t expect Max Holloway to accept any of his would-be challenges.

The most recent declaration of Topuria was that he planned to march to the center of the octagon at the start of the fight and point to the ground as an invitation for Holloway to meet him there to start trading bombs. It’s a gesture Holloway made famous after doing it years ago to provoke a wild altercation in the final moments of his fight with Ricardo Lamas before doing it again at UFC 300 and delivering one of the craziest knockouts in made history with a last second. finish over Justin Gaethje.

Holloway says the problem with Topuria trying to steal his move is that he doesn’t even understand when or why he’s done it in the past.

“The point-down moment – ​​I don’t think he gets the gist of it,” Holloway told MMA Fighting. “Ultimately the point is down, it’s something you do towards the end of the fight. If something is going well, if the fight is entertaining or if you are winning, you give the other person a chance. The moment is the moment for a reason.”

Topuria promised that if Holloway actually met him in the center and threw caution to the wind it would net him a first-round knockout. Holloway isn’t ruling that out as a possibility – just as he could leave Topuria face down on the canvas during the same exchange – but that’s setting up disaster in a fight that pits two of the best and most skilled fighters in the game. world should show.

“The belt is called the ‘Blessed Man Forever,’ or what you guys want to call ‘the baddest mother effer,’” Holloway said, referring to the ‘BMF’ title he won when he defeated Gaethje. “If the belt was the ‘DMF’, the dumbest motherfucker, I might get sucked into it. It’s far from that.

“Like what I told you, and I told him, he talks about being a boxer – that’s not very boxer IQ-ish of him, but we’ll see what happens.”

Topuria challenging Holloway to throw down with him in a Toughman-style brawl is just the latest piece of nonsense the featherweight champion is churning out ahead of UFC 308. He also recently said that Holloway didn’t actually want this fight, but was instead forced into accepting the title fight after the UFC reportedly passed on a potential bout against Michael Chandler instead.

If Topuria tries to get into Holloway’s head with these constant jabs, he might be wasting his time because the 32-year-old Hawaiian can only laugh at that accusation.

“The first guy I called out (after UFC 300) was the guy sitting ringside,” Holloway said, referring to Topuria. “It’s funny. He says that, but then you can start clicking. There’s an interview where he says he won’t fight me if the BMF title isn’t on the line. Last time I checked, the BMF title isn’t on the line.

“So if anyone was forced to fight, he looks like him. It came from his own mouth. He said he wouldn’t fight me unless the BMF title is on the line. It’s not that, buddy. So I think he played himself in that.

Holloway admits he had plenty of options available to him after his upset victory over Gaethje, but the one fight he really wanted was the one he got at UFC 308.

“I wanted Ilia Topuria,” Holloway said. “I wanted the featherweight title. I wanted to become a two-time world champion. The undisputed title is what I wanted.”

Between now and Saturday night, Holloway expects to hear Topuria issue even more nonsensical challenges and make all kinds of predictions about the fight.

None of that matters much to Holloway, as long as Topuria shows up at his best and doesn’t forget to take that UFC title back to Abu Dhabi.

“Ultimately, if that’s what he needs to get into the fight or the fight or whatever it is for the date, then so be it,” Holloway said. “Some people, that’s what they need. They need that self-confidence. They have to build their self-confidence somehow, and if it’s pumping up its breasts, beating its chest and saying, ‘I’m the man,’ then it’s him.

“You can’t take it away. He got quite far with that technique. So if he ends up using it for this fight, then so be it.”