Marca<\/a>. \u201cBut I think something I\u2019ve always applied to my life is that if you try to catch two rabbits, you end up catching neither. So, I want to finish my story in mixed martial arts, in MMA, first, and once I\u2019m done, then make my complete transition to boxing. I can\u2019t be preparing for an MMA fight, then leave, prepare for a boxing match, come back… I don\u2019t think that would be very professional, would it?<\/p>\n\u201cBecause boxing requires a completely different approach, very, very, very different training that I have to adapt to. Obviously, the timing is different, and well, it\u2019s not even an octagon; it\u2019s a ring, and I would have to adapt to that, which takes time, like everything in life. So, right now, in mixed martial arts, when I finish\u2014which I don\u2019t think will be too long, to be honest\u2014I\u2019ll make my transition to boxing, and I\u2019m going to surprise more than a few people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topuria was not specific as to what those goals are, or how long \u201ctoo long\u201d might mean, but he did allow that his future in MMA is up in the air based on several possibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn active sports, I still have… now, what I have left in mixed martial arts, well, I don\u2019t know, to be honest, it\u2019s like… it depends,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cIt depends on many things; it depends on how circumstances develop. But well, we\u2019ll try to stay active as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
And one of those possibilities that Topuria appears most interested in is the opportunity to challenge for a third title. Topuria has already begun lobbying for a shot at welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, and he says the \u201ctriple crown\u201d is absolutely something he hopes to pull off before he walks away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, nobody knows what\u2019s going to happen tomorrow, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s fun, what\u2019s complicated, and that\u2019s where the struggle lies, isn\u2019t it? What\u2019s going to be next? And when you sometimes want to delve too deeply into that journey, that\u2019s when the uncertainties, the doubts, the fears appear… so I\u2019ve learned to focus on what I have in the near future. Obviously, I also have long-term plans, but right now, what I can do is focus on that triple crown, do my best, and then we\u2019ll see what the future holds for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria may not have long left in MMA. Earlier this year, Topuria won the vacant lightweight title,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,701,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-345588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}