Ilia Topuria reveals Edson Barboza and others declined to fight him before UFC 282
Ilia Topuria recently revealed that he had a hard time finding an opponent prior to his fight against Bryce Mitchell.
Topuria took on Mitchell in a featherweight matchup at UFC 282. 'El Matador' battered his opponent before submitting Mitchell with an arm-triangle choke at the 3:10 mark of the second round. With this fight, his win tally stands at five in the UFC, along with being undefeated in the promotion.
In a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Topuria claimed that he had a hard time finding an opponent before Bryce Mitchell agreed to fight him. The 25-year-old asserted that fighters like Dan Ige, Edson Barboza, and Sodiq Yusuff refused to fight him.
'El Matador' opined that the fighters turned down the bout as they were afraid of the consequences of entering the cage with him.
The 25-year-old Spanish fighter said:
"Excuses like everyone is making when they hear my name...Everyone was turning down to fight before him [Bryce Mitchell]. Dan Ige turned down the fight. Sodiq Yusuff turned down the fight...Barboza turned down the fight...They always have a problem, injuries in the back or problems with their ego or I don't know what happened...At the same time, I understand them because when you want to close yourself with me in the cage, you know that you are gonna have problems with your health because you are gonna end up in the hospital."
You can check out the full episode The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani below:
Ilia Topuria wants a fight against Brian Ortega next
Ilia Topuria put on an impressive performance against Bryce Mitchell in the first fight of the UFC 282 pay-per-view event, submitting 'Thug Nasty' in the second round.
Following his win, 'El Matador' wasted no time in revealing who he wants next. The Georgian fighter called out No. 3-ranked featherweight Brian Ortega as his next potential opponent.
Speaking of the same in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, the fighter said:
"I would love to focus on my weight class. I would love to face Brian Ortega. He never turned down a fight, so now I want my manager to make an offer to his team... It's a fight that makes sense for him because in case he gets a win against me... It's going to put him in the talks for a title shot and the same for me."
Check out what Ilia Topuria has to say about fighting Brian Ortega as his next potential opponent in the video below (2:32:30):