"I didn't want to suffer anymore" - Ilia Topuria gets brutally honest about decision to move to lightweight ahead of Charles Oliveira fight
With UFC 317 a little under two weeks away, Ilia Topuria has shed light on the reason behind his return to lightweight. The move is permanent, which saw the Spaniard relinquish his featherweight title, with former foe Alexander Volkanovski recapturing the belt at UFC 314, beating Diego Lopes.
According to Topuria, the biggest factor behind his move to lightweight was the grueling weight cut to featherweight. Despite his short stature, 'El Matador' or 'La Leyenda,' as he now prefers to be known, is densely muscled and found the experience of the featherweight cut too torturous to continue.
"When you're cutting weight and you can't eat or drink water, you don't care about any material things. They can give you bags of money, they can give you all the cars want, you don't care at all. If they gave you this little glass of water and said, 'You can drink this and it won't increase your weight,' I'll give you whatever it takes, because in that moment, I'm so low. I feel terrible. It's like sitting naked in the middle of the street."
The former featherweight champion doubled down on how draining the weight cut was, telling ESPN Deportes the following:
"I feel terrible. So, I didn't want to suffer anymore. I didn't want to go through that. I'd already done it throughout my career. I'd already achieved my dream, which was to become a world champion. I had to close that chapter because I didn't want to suffer anymore because, honestly, it's like living in the desert, and I wanted to live on the beach."
Check out Ilia Topuria's honest thoughts on his featherweight cut:
Now, Topuria will have the chance to find championship success at lightweight when he faces the division's former champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant title.
Ilia Topuria has already beaten two UFC champions
Charles Oliveira will mark the third time that Ilia Topuria will have faced a UFC champion, former or otherwise. The Spaniard's most recent fights were back-to-back knockouts of Max Holloway at UFC 308 and Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Holloway is a former featherweight titleholder, who last reigned in 2019.
Check out Ilia Topuria knocking out Max Holloway:
Meanwhile, Volkanovski was the featherweight champion when Topuria knocked him out. Following the Spaniard's departure from the division, Volkanovski reclaimed the belt at UFC 314 against Diego Lopes.