The featherweight title photo has been looking for an injection of fresh blood lately. You might get that this Saturday at UFC Jacksonville, as Elijah Topuria looks to establish himself as a formidable competitor at £145.
In the Topuria scenes in the Fight Night event, set to air on ABC, is Josh Emmett of Team Alpha Male. The 38-year-old Emmett is coming back from losing to Yair Rodriguez in an interim title fight earlier this year, with his window for gold in the company closing fast.
To hear Topuria (13-0) tell it during Wednesday’s UFC Jacksonville media day, he couldn’t care less about Emmett’s skill set – but he thinks Emmett needs to worry a lot about what Topuria himself brings to the table.
“I should be worried about his hook, nothing else,” the 26-year-old, Emmett’s junior 12, told the media. “I didn’t care much about him wrestling, or BJJ or a floor match, even boxing. He must be concerned about my boxing, my wrestling, my struggles, about everything.”
“I can’t wait to go by the cage and get another win,” Topuria added.
With his victory, the German-born fighter, of Spanish and Georgian descent, expects to fight for gold next. “I’m the next guy in line. Who deserves more to fight for a title than me? No one else, so I’m the next guy,” Topuria said. He also expects the same result against champion Aleksander Volkanovski as with everyone else. “Always the same. I will eliminate him in the first round.”
However, the first step is Emmett’s, and Topuria insists he doesn’t condone anyone. However, he is done with his rivalry with Buddy Pemblett. As far as booking a fight its concerned at least.
“Mainly because I have a goal now to become the featherweight world champion, which is lightweight. He’s not even ranked,” Topuria explained. “So why do I have to fight him? I have no interest in fighting him. If he ever puts himself in the rankings which he is [becomes] A little older in the company, not just to talk and be a showman, as a professional man, why not? I don’t care, we can do it at 155, 170, I don’t care. He can come and make weight.”
So no more hotel confrontations then? The couple had a nasty confrontation in a London hotel in March of 2022, in which a bottle of hand sanitizer was thrown. “I don’t know, always if I see him coming I want to slap him in the face. I don’t know.”
Maybe not then.
Watch the full media appearance at UFC Jacksonville by Ilia Topuria above.