Ilia Topuria already has the future planned for himself. Aside from his certainty of stealing the belt from featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, “El Matador” also wants to explore the boxing world. His first target in the sports is Canelo Álvarez, whom he believes he could beat.
Topuria is set to face and challenge Volkanovski in a 145-pound title headliner bout at UFC 298 on February 17. With a clean slate in his career, the Georgian-Spanish fighter is confident that he can easily defeat the Australian champ, who he described as “not a natural wrestler.” After stealing the belt, Topuria plans to defend the belt and even named Max Holloway his next target. Aside from the current No. 1-ranked featherweight fighter, nonetheless, Topuria has other goals in mind, albeit outside the MMA world: to beat Mexican professional boxer Canelo Álvarez.
In his recent interview on OverDogs Podcast, El Matador shared his respect and admiration for the boxing professional. Nonetheless, the MMA fighter also shared his belief that he could handle the boxer in case they face in the ring someday.
“I would love to fight one day with Canelo,” Topuria said. “I have so, so much respect for him. But I wanna fight with him one day. Once I win the belt and become a UFC world champion, I wanna go for him. Because I really think I have a chance with him. I’ve been following him forever… I believe I have the possibility to beat him.”
In case pushed, this won’t be the first time an MMA fighter would enter the boxing industry. Prior to Topuria, other MMA fighters like Nate Diaz, Tyron Woodley, and, most of all, Francis Ngannou also ventured into the boxing world, with the latter making a huge success in his debut against Tyson Fury. While inspiring, one still has to take Topuria’s plan with a pinch of salt, as Volkanovski could still change the details of the young fighter’s bucket list.
