Ilia Topuria suffered the first loss of his career after absorbing a ton of damage in his main event showdown against Justin Gaethje at UFC White House and one look at his face explained why his coaches stopped the fight after the fourth round.<\/p>\n
With both of his eyes almost closed, and Gaethje blasting him with a brutal body shot just before the round ended, Topuria\u2019s coaches couldn\u2019t fathom seeing him take any more punishment. After the fight, Topuria made no excuses for the loss and vowed to come back to avenge his loss and reclaim his title.<\/p>\n
But Topuria\u2019s longtime friend Merab Dvalishvili, who is preparing for a wrestling match against Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo in RAF on July 11, says the former UFC lightweight champion was greatly diminished after the first round when he took a punch to the eye that already had him visually impaired.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother Ilia, unfortunately, he lost but he showed a great fight,\u201d Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting. \u201cFight was really tough. Unfortunately, Ilia was fighting blind since the first round. I think one moment Justin Gaethje threw a punch like this [with his thumb extended], I think he eye poked him. It was even worse and then Ilia [was] blind in both eyes. He [wanted] to keep fighting. He almost finished Justin Gaethje from the body shot. He even dropped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ilia continued [throwing] hammerfists or throwing punches, he would finish him. But Ilia chased the submission and then Justin Gaethje somehow survived. It was a tough fight but I\u2019m proud of my brother Ilia. He showed a great, great fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topuria was pretty clearly affected by the damage done to his eyes, because he had immense swelling on his face not to mention the cuts he absorbed as well.<\/p>\n
While he would never take anything away from Gaethje\u2019s win, Dvalishvili knows Topuria was compromised for a huge part of that fight, which is why he really wants to see a rematch once both fighters are healthy again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes when you got eye poked or you broke this [orbital] bone, you are blind pretty much,\u201d Dvalishvili said. \u201cThat affects the fight. That was the main thing. Ilia was fighting blind. That\u2019s what Ilia said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have very big confidence, Ilia is not only going to come back, he will come back even stronger. He will come so motivated. He\u2019s special. When I say special, we all know he\u2019s special. He\u2019s proved it many times. That wasn\u2019t his night. Like I said, it was a couple of things. He got eye poked and he got a [broken] bone in his nose, I believe. Then that affects his fight. Now, he will come back and he will win his belt back and he will continue his winning streak again.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a special guest attending the UFC White House card, Dvalishvili said the entire experience was amazing but Topuria\u2019s loss really left a sour taste in his mouth. In fact, Dvalishvili took the loss very hard because it was difficult to see his friend lose in such dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really heartbreaking,\u201d Dvalishvili said. \u201cSince that, I was very stressed. I\u2019ve been checking online all day [on] comments, it keeps going, especially in my country. It\u2019s been very stressful. After the fight, it\u2019s been very stressful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t really slept good. I\u2019ve been checking online, so much talk, so much nonsense talking and people have so many crazy opinions. It\u2019s been hard. I feel bad for Ilia but I know he will come back very strong.<\/p>\n
Since the fight ended, Gaethje shut down Topuria getting an immediate rematch but he also stated that he\u2019s expecting to compete again after briefly considering retirement.<\/p>\n
There are a long list of contenders vying for the first crack at Gaethje\u2019s title but Arman Tsarukyan is likely the top candidate.<\/p>\n
Still, Dvalishvili hopes Gaethje sticks around long enough to cross paths with Topuria again, because he expects a much different result if they meet again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe if they fight again, Ilia will win all the times, but it was Justin Gaethje\u2019s moment that day,\u201d Dvalishvili said. \u201cHopefully Justin Gaethje is not going to retire. He will give Ilia a rematch and in rematch, I believe Ilia can win.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they are both tough fighters and Justin Gaethje, he can hit really hard. He either knocks people out or gets knocked out. That\u2019s the type of fighter he is. Much respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria suffered the first loss of his career after absorbing a ton of damage in his main…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-767982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767982","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=767982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}