Amid claims he is weighing up a lightweight move in his return, Ilia Topuria has been urged to honor a fight with Alexander Volkanovski first and foremost by Dan Hooker — who labelled the unbeaten featherweight champion a “d*ckhead” for trying to find a way out of the rematch.
Topuria, the current undisputed featherweight champion, retained his title for the first time back in October in the headliner of UFC 308, taking out former champion, Max Holloway with a hellacious third round knockout in their grudge fight in Abu Dhabi.
As for Hooker, the City Kickboxing star has been lined up for a massive fight in his return to action — potentially versus former interim champion, Justin Gaethje — having turned in his third straight at UFC 305 back in August with a decision success against Mateusz Gamrot.
Ilia Topuria ripped for eyeing lightweight move by Dan Hooker
However, amid claims he would welcome a lightweight move in pursuit of a title eliminator against former gold holder, Charles Oliveira, Georgian-Spaniard knockout ace, Topuria has been told to forget about a 155lbs leap for the time being.
“Just classic sh*t,” Dan Hooker said during an interview with Submission Radio. “It’s pretty evident that he’s just working off (Conor) McGregor’s playbook and line one of McGregor’s playbook is just like keep your name in the headlines. So, like, that’s all that I kind of see from it is (Ilia) Topuria keeping his name in headlines. The guy doesn’t fight that often. I think he just fights Volk sometime next year, March, April.”
“Bro, well then don’t get in the f*cking cage with him (Alexander Volkanovski) and agree to fight him, d*ckhead,” Dan Hooker said . “You let him get in the cage, you had a face-off with him, and you said you’d fight him. Bro, man to man, that’s that. You’ve agreed, you already agreed to a fight. How are you going to back out of it now?”
