UFC 317: Ilia Topuria says he'll ‘never' fight Alex Volkanovski again
Ilia Topuria has emphatically shut the door on a potential rematch with Alex Volkanovski, suggesting the Aussie's dreams of becoming a multi-division champ are over.
Volkanovski lost his featherweight belt to Topuria in February last year, with a knockout punch leaving the Aussie's career on the ropes following another KO loss to Islam Makhachev.
Topuria (16-0) defended his featherweight title against Max Holloway before vacating the title to move up to lightweight.
He is aiming to become a two-division champion when he takes on Charles Oliveira in a blockbuster main event this weekend at UFC 317 in Las Vegas.
'It's another dream come true, you know, Topuria told news.com.au.
'I always had the dream to become a world champion, but now I have the opportunity to become two-weight world champion. And the first one to be undefeated.
'So I felt very excited and very grateful for having this opportunity and of course it means a lot for me and for my family.'
Australia's Volkanovski, 36, is in the twilight of his career but showed he is still a class fighter, defeating Diego Lopes to reclaim his featherweight title.
But Volk's dreams of becoming lightweight champion appear over, with the Aussie set to finish his UFC career with a couple of featherweight title defences.
Topuria shook his head when asked if he would fight Volkanovski again in a rematch.
'Never (again), all with Volk is done,' he said.
'First of all, because I'm not planning to go back to the featherweight division again.
'And the second thing is that I don't think that they (the UFC) are gonna allow him to move up to the lightweight division.
'OK if he does it, I don't think that he deserves the title shot directly.'
Volkanovski has previously told news.com.au he may only have a handful of fights left before he retires, but his next featherweight opponent is unclear — Lopes, Yair Rodriguez or undefeated Russian Movsar Evloev are potential options.
With Jon Jones retired and Alex Pereira's next fight up in the air, the next great UFC blockbuster could be a bout between Topuria and Makhachev at lightweight.
Makhachev has signalled his intention to move up to welterweight to fight Jack Della Maddalena for the belt after the Perth product became Australia's third UFC champion earlier this year.
'I don't know what's going to happen after this fight, to be honest,' Topuria said when asked about a potential fight with Makhachev.
'I'm willing is to stay active. So whatever the UFC wants me to do, if they want me to move up to welterweight division to face Islam, I will be OK.
'If they want to keep defending the belt of lightweight division, I will be OK also. I'm here to fight and to entertain people.
'Of course, if he (Makhachev) wants to come back (to lightweight) or the UFC wants me to move up to the welterweight division, I always have that door open, you know what I mean? 'I always wanted to fight him. Since the first day I heard his name and I decided to move up. I was like I want to face this guy.
'He decided to move up, I don't know for what reasons, but if in the future he wants to fight, I will be there.'
As for this weekend against Oliveira, Topuria said: 'I see myself knocking him out in the first round. Maybe it's going to be right hand straight to his face.'
'For the first time, I could say that I really enjoyed the whole process of the training camp. I enjoyed everything. That extra pounds make a huge difference in my life.
'So, I'm very happy and very excited to show to everyone like that I really belong to this weight class. They think that I'm small, they're gonna realise on that actually I'm huge.'
Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira — lightweight title bout
Alexandre Pantoja vs Kai Kara-France — flyweight title bout
Brandon Royval vs Joshua Van — flyweight bout
Beniel Dariush vs Renato Moicano — lightweight bout
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