Ilia Topuria has been getting some high praise from fellow UFC fighters.
At UFC 298, Topuria stunned the MMA world when he knocked out dominant featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski in the second round of their fight.
UFC veteran Kelvin Gastelum was stunned by Ilia’s performance and spoke about it in his Youtube channel. According to Gastelum
“I was blown away like many of you I’m sure were. I was dead, dead wrong on my pick, and Ilia came out and showed out. It was very impressive to watch…Ilia came out looking like a calculated killer. He didn’t do too much. He didn’t throw just to throw. He didn’t panic when things weren’t going his way because in that first round, Volk came out amazing…That’s what impressed me the most though. Ilia came out and stayed calm, cool, and collected and didn’t try to change his approach.”
Gastelum went on to compare Topuria’s cocky persona with another MMA legend, Conor McGregor.
“There’s a lot of similarities I saw between him and the time Conor McGregor was taking over that division. When he came out and was talking all that cr-p, and he had all of Ireland behind him and snatched that belt and so did Ilia. Ilia has been following those same footsteps.”
Like McGregor, a confident Topuria believed that he would easily beat Volkanovski while many doubted him.
Topuria now has eyes set on fighting McGregor and becoming the face of the UFC.
