Ilia Topuria hits back at criticism from Max Holloway regarding BMF title belt

UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has hit back at Max Holloway for criticising him buying and carrying out a BMF title belt.

As we know, Max Holloway successfully retained the BMF title by defeating Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 318. However, some have questioned whether or not he should even have the strap in the first place. That’s because in his last outing at 145 pounds, Holloway was knocked out by Ilia Topuria. However, the belt wasn’t officially on the line, as they were instead fighting over the featherweight championship.

Ilia Topuria, meanwhile, felt as if he had become the true BMF champion. Therefore, he bought a BMF belt and decided to pose with it on social media. As you can probably imagine, Max Holloway wasn’t a big fan of this, and has spoken out several times about it – including during the UFC 318 post-fight press conference.

Now, Ilia Topuria has responded, as talk of a potential rematch between the two men continues to gather momentum.

Ilia Topuria dismisses Max Holloway

“That’s not my problem,” Topuria told the Nelk Boys. “I just knocked him out. How can you still be the BMF if I knocked you out? I pointed to the ground in the first 10 seconds. You ran away. Then I caught you anyways and I put you to sleep. And you’re still the BMF? How’s that?”

Topuria went on to speak about who his next opponent is likely to be.

“I think they are going to try to push for Justin,” Topuria said. “That’s what I think. Or maybe Paddy. There’s not even a conversation about Arman. … He needs to fight.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

‘El Matador’ is the next big thing in mixed martial arts, and it’ll be interesting to see whether he leans into the idea of a Holloway rematch.