Ilia Topuria finally lost a fight, and that has set him free to be better than ever.<\/p>\n
In June, Topuria defended his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC White House. Topuria was a heavy favorite, and he won; it was widely anticipated that \u201cEl Matador\u201d would get the rare opportunity to pursue triple-champ status by moving up to challenge Islam Makhachev for the welterweight title. Instead, Gaethje scored one of the upsets of the year, battering Topuria to a corner stoppage at the end of the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Since the loss, Topuria has mostly kept quiet, but earlier this week, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that the promotion was planning for Topuria\u2019s return in early 2027, and with his comeback now on the horizon, Topuria has begun making the media rounds again.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, ABC Diario released a preview clip of an upcoming interview with Topuria, where he addresses the loss to Gaethje and his comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the worst situation a fighter can possibly be in,\u201d Topuria said in the clip. \u201cI\u2019ve experienced the worst day of my career. What\u2019s worse than that? Dying?<\/p>\n
\u201cWas something off is a question I\u2019ve had to face over the last five or six months, but one thing is clear: you either win or you lose; and I lost. If I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and it was like, \u2018No, no, no, no, no, this is not me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topuria seems to be at peace with the loss, and while he intends to return to action, the former two-division champion suggests that he might even retire after he does come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve achieved everything, and after this fight, what else?\u201d Topuria said. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll even retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
But retirement appears to be a future conversation. For now, Topuria is focused on his return, where he promises to be better than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike you have never seen him before,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cFrom April onward is when we are considering returning. I have always been aware that in this life, not everything is a bed of roses, even though I\u2019ve never had it before.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when he does come back, there\u2019s one name on his mind: longtime rival, Paddy Pimblett.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaddy, Paddy, Paddy,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cI\u2019ll eat him like a sausage, which he is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria finally lost a fight, and that has set him free to be better than ever. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[829,99,6493,10080],"class_list":["post-907999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}