Ilia Topuria's attack on Makhachev and Khabib: "They have an attitude as if they invented the sport."

In just over ten days, Ilia Topuria will be fighting for the UFC lightweight belt. Originally, he was scheduled to fight Islam Makhachev, the reigning champion. However, the Dagestani vacated the belt and chose to move up a division to face Jack Della Maddalena at welterweight. Makhachev understood that this was more important than fighting the Spanish-Georgian.

Well, in a recent interview, Ilia Topuria took another shot at the Russian and his team, pointing out that they may have overly high self-esteem. " Khabib and Makhachev tried to make themselves look important. They have an attitude as if they invented the sport . It's to tell them, 'Guys, sit back, enjoy the sun wherever you are, and do what you're told to do,'" he told ESPN.

For Topuria, the reality is that Makhachev and his team were afraid to face him. In his view, all they said were excuses: " Everyone was going to realize the truth and look what happened . 'I'm not going to vacate the title even if I move up to 170 pounds, Ilia Topuria has to do at least one fight to get the world championship fight'... They moved up, he vacated the title and I'm fighting directly for the belt ," the former featherweight champion said.

On the other hand, Topuria has clarified the reasons why he wanted to compete with Makhachev, making it clear that he wants the best. " I wanted to fight Makhachev for a simple fact, just like with Volkanovski . If you were going to beat and take the title from someone at 145 pounds, it had to be Volk, because he had the most history in the division, the one who had dominated everyone, the greatest. The same thing happened with Makhachev. I wanted to fight him for the simple fact that he had dominated everyone . Who is the one who is beating everyone? Islam? Then I want to fight him," the fighter concluded.