The Spanish-Georgian fighter Illia Topuria26, knocked down Josh Emmett, number five in the world, this weekend and thus reinforces his candidacy for the title of world champion: “I know I’m going to win. I’m better than all of them. My dream was always to be the best. To be a legend. I want them to mention me when they talk about MMA, whether they want to or not.” He flaunts the classic swagger of the martial arts world, but in addition to talking he also keeps his word.
The Hispano-Georgian counts for win every one of his bouts in his professional career (14-0) after adding a new victory against Josh Emmet, number five in the world, in the star fight in Jacksonville (Florida).
The Matador wanted to knock out the American, who resisted the five rounds despite the many blows that the man from Alicante was giving him, especially in the fourth round when he managed to knock him to the ground several times. Emmet’s face, a true warrior of the Octagon, was a true reflection of the punishment he was receiving from Topuria, who with this victory, by unanimous decision, places Spain in the elite of the UFC and reinforces his candidacy for the title of world champion.
“Nobody was able to match the level I have in the cage, I want to go looking for number one now. I have to fight Alexander Volkanovski (the king of the featherweight category). His legacy has ended, mine begins,” sentenced the wrestler born in Halle (Germany), raised in Georgia and who he has lived since he was a teenager in Alicante, where he began to practice mixed martial artsan emerging discipline within fighting sports, at the Climent Club gym.
A viral type beyond social networks: “I know I’m going to win. I know I’m better than all of them. My dream was always to be the best. To be a legend. I want them to mention me when they talk about MMA, whether they want to or not.” Worrying is in human nature but it doesn’t seem to be something that is in the DNA of this Hispano-Georgian, jiu jitsu black belt, who practiced Greco-Roman wrestling years ago and who is already number 5 in the UFC featherweight ranking.
“Either you kill me, or you die. And make sure you kill me because I’m going to get up. So enjoy tonight, because tomorrow you’re going to sleep in pain,” declared the fighter in a documentary that Movistar Plus+ released at the end of April, in which details about his career, the relationship with his brother – also a wrestler of MMA – and talks about what has always been his life’s dream: to be a world champion.
Topuria moves to the sound of the new times, where gather hundreds of thousands of followers on social networks and raise passions through them. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), an American company that manages the fights and the show that surrounds the best fighters on the planet, moves masses on YouTube, and is the competition that attracts the most followers, especially young people. Topuria is the national flagship of a sport that is less and less a minority in Spain.
Spectator interest is growing, surpassing even top-tier boxing contests. Power, speed or aggressiveness are some of the qualities of the fighters, more complete and agile when training most of them in different martial arts such as Muay Thai, Jiu-jitsu and wrestling or boxing. Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Israel Adesanya O ‘Nate’ Diaz caused a boom in this sport a decade ago that today is maintained with other reference names such as Alexander Volkanovski, the man who governs the category to which he aspires Topuria.
“Fear keeps you from all good things. It takes you away from happiness, success, love. All good things are on the other side of fear. And there is no better feeling than overcoming that fear and feeling like the hero of your own story,” the fighter recently highlighted in an interview.
Para Topuria, every fight “is chessIt’s playing with your opponent’s mind, it’s studying it perfectly and making him give up.” The wrestler confesses that study your rival to the maximum and that it is so important when a fight starts, like seeing what movements he does once he is exhausted. “I look at what his natural movements are when he gets tired and that’s when I receive the instructions from my team to be ready for a certain movement. And that’s where the mental war occurs in which my rival no longer has a way out and it’s his turn give up”, he explains in a recent interview in which he says he believes a lot in God and boasts of being a good wine lover.
The man who aims to bring a UFC event to Spain admits that counting fights and sponsorships, he can earn more than 100,000 euros a month. A millionaire through and through who says he’s not made to lose: “I feel like I was born to succeed and be happy,” says the athlete, who has accumulated more than one million euros in earnings in the last two years and shares his life with businesswoman Giorgina Uzcategui Badell, founder of the company Future & Energydedicated to the sale of water purification systems.
2023-06-26 17:31:30
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