{"id":348063,"date":"2025-12-14T19:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T19:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348063\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T19:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T19:28:07","slug":"topuria-praises-ufc-after-interim-belt-they-were-excellent-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348063\/","title":{"rendered":"Topuria praises UFC after interim belt: \u2018They were excellent with me\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilia Topuria won\u2019t be fighting<\/a> until summer 2026 at the earliest, but don\u2019t expect the rising Spanish sports star to disappear off the face of the earth.<\/p>\n

Topuria is going through what sounds like an ugly divorce and has cleared his calendar of all major distractions until that is taken care of. He still showed up to promote WOW FC, the Spanish fight promotion he co-owns alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. They held a card in Madrid on Saturday night and \u201cEl Matador\u201d sat down with ESPN Deportes\u2019 Papa Legaspi to discuss his fight break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, as I have communicated, I am going through personal problems,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cI do not have an exact date when everything will be fixed. I hope that as soon as possible, as soon as it\u2019s solved, I\u2019ll be ready to go back in the Octagon. I prioritize at this time the welfare of my family, of my children. So as soon as everything is solved I will be back to the Octagon and will give it all, the show that everyone deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topuria was initially expected to return at UFC 324<\/a> for the promotion\u2019s debut Paramount+ card on January 24th, but now Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett will headline instead. The UFC has been extremely cool about this switch-up and the loss of one of their biggest stars for several months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that they were excellent with me,\u201d Topuria said of UFC brass. \u201cThey have a special connection with me, they have been understanding without having to give a lot of explanations. From the very first moment they have extended their hand, I have been offered their support in any time I needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I have the experience of going through this part of the sport as a promoter and not only as a fighter, I understand in many more ways that perhaps I was not able to understand before. So I am very happy, to be honest, for the relationship that I have with the UFC, and the understanding they have had with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another person who has shown Topuria understanding: Paddy Pimblett. While \u201cThe Baddy\u201d is still more than happy to mock \u201cChorizo\u201d and build up a potential bout, he\u2019s made it clear that Ilia\u2019s personal problems won\u2019t become fight fodder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said he looked like someone who\u2019s a super entertaining guy who did a superb job,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cHe had his slips with tweets he made about Georgia. But I think we all learn from our mistakes, and deep down I notice that he is a person that understands family problems, personal problems, respects it. One thing has nothing to do with the other, my personal problems and my personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end we are professionals, we are going to have a professional match, and I think it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun for everyone and remains one of the most exciting fights for all the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Paddy Pimblett vs. Ilia Topuria match would be huge, and the only man standing in the way of it happening is Justin Gaethje.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always accept God\u2019s will, whatever He wants to happen will be good if Paddy wins,\u201d Topuria joked. \u201cIf Justin wins, the UFC has different plans that I can\u2019t talk about at this moment. But if I were offered to fight Justin at the White House, that would also be very exciting for me. It would be something I would be very excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how capable he will be of ruining the plans of the UFC, and Paddy Pimblett\u2019s plans,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be quite difficult, not impossible, so I wish him all the luck. But I don\u2019t know if he\u2019d be lucky beating Paddy Pimblett because then he has to fight me, and that\u2019s not very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoever wins at UFC 324 could end up facing off with Topuria in the cage \u2026 or not. According to \u201cEl Matador,\u201d his team is still figuring out whether he can make the trip to Las Vegas for January 24th.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making decisions at this time whether we will make that trip or not,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria won\u2019t be fighting until summer 2026 at the earliest, but don\u2019t expect the rising Spanish sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":{"0":"post-348063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news","14":"tag-ufc-on-paramount"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}