“Everything I did, I did in Spain. “My life is in Spain.” The phrase resonates in every corner. It gains strength and multiplies. Ilia Topuriathe fighter who was born in Germany, has Georgian origins and grew up in Alicante, hit the table in the world of mixed martial arts and established himself as the first Spanish world champion in the UFC. The matador He warned that he was going to make history and he kept his word because in the second round of the main event of the evening that took place last night in Los Angeles he snatched the featherweight belt from him. Alexander Volkanovski.
Topuria arrived very confident at the UFC 298 evening, with 14 consecutive wins that supported his desire to have the crown. At the Honda Center in California, everyone was expectant and he did not disappoint: a lethal right hand to take his rival out of the game and achieve a brutal knockout went around the world.
Everything was resolved in the second round, because Topuria’s attack was clear and his hands entered cleanly. The Matador chained a series of blows that were lethal for Volkanovski: a left, followed by a right, and it was another right that sent the Australian to the canvas, who remained without reaction on the ground, until the referee ordered the end of the fight.
“It’s going to be abysmal, I assure you. Tomorrow we will write history. It is going to be something historic for Spain, for Georgia… and for me personally. “He who believes, creates realities,” Topuria had told the newspaper Marca, and the 27-year-old fighter returned every penny paid by the more than 500 Spaniards who came to the stadium to see his consecration.
And after the fight he confirmed his desire to transcend: “My goal, from the beginning, was to become the UFC champion. Now that I am, I don’t know what the next steps I will take will be, but they will surely be big steps“said El Matador, who confessed that he is a Real Madrid fan and received congratulations from the merengue club on his official X account.
Regarding the rematch that Volkanovski asked for in the octagon, Topuria explained: “I am going to give him a rematch because he is a good person, but, at the same time, it is time to move forward. “It is time to clean up the division, it is time for new generations.”
Even after the victory Topuria did not stop his desire to continue growing in the world of mixed martial arts and appealed to the microphones of the official broadcast to publicly challenge Conor McGregor: “If you still have h…, I’ll wait for you in Spain ”.
El origen de Topuria
Ilia Topuria was born in 1997 in Halle, Germany and lived there until 2003, when her parents decided to return to their home country, Georgia, where began practicing Greco-Roman wrestling. At 8 years old his parents separated and at 15 she moved to Spain. Resident in Alicante, he began training at the Climent Club, run by the Argentinians Agustín and Jorge Climent, specialized in MMA.
He managed to make his official debut at the age of 18 and in 2019 he had six fights in which he enjoyed victory. He arrived at the UFC in 2020 and defeated Youseff Zalal on points in Abu Dhabi. And then he showed his rigor to Damon Jackson, Ryan Hall, Jai Herbert, Bryce Mitchell, Josh Emett and last night Alexander Volkanovski.
Although the nickname El Matador is not what he likes the most, some time ago in an interview in “El Hormiguero”, with Pablo Motos, he told how that adjective was born: “’El Matador’ emerged within my gym, the Climent. Club. It really came from there, it was after many years. At first they started calling me ‘El Matador’ and I didn’t like it very much because I associated it a lot with bulls and animals. AND I am a quite sentimental person With all that. But, over time, ‘El Matador’ began to sound better and better to me.”
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