Ilia
Topuria believes his altercation with Josh Hokit
could have turned physical without the presence of
security. 

Topuria puts his lightweight title on the line against interim
champion Justin
Gaethje in the main event at
UFC Freedom 205 on June 14 at the White House. Meanwhile, Hokit
is scheduled to fight Derrick
Lewis in a heavyweight tilt on the same card. 

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Topuria and Hokit got into an altercation during a promotional
presser for the event earlier this month in Newark, New Jersey.
Hokit launched an unprovoked tirade on Alex
Pereira, who fights Ciryl Gane
for the interim heavyweight title on the same card. Pereira and
Topuria had traveled together to visit President Donald Trump just
ahead of the presser. Topuria, who was sitting next to Pereira,
stood up to defend “Poatan” against Hokit’s rant. Things heated up
when Topuria threw a glass of water at Hokit. However, security
personnel intervened before things could escalate. 

‘I Couldn’t Believe It’

Topuria recently opened up about his altercation with Hokit. “El
Matador” explains that he was enraged when Hokit insulted Pereira’s
mother. While Topuria understands the usual trash talk in MMA, he
believes certain boundaries mustn’t be crossed with millions of
fans watching. Topuria believes someone could have gotten hurt in
the altercation, and he is certain that it wouldn’t have been
him.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Topuria said in a recent interview with
ABC. “I’ve been in many press conferences, I have seen everything.
But I have never seen someone stand up and talk about someone’s
mother in such a disrespectful way. It was pretty disrespectful…
And for no reason, you’re not even going to fight him. You can talk
about the other’s professionalism, you can go after each other,
it’s fine, we’re used to it, we know what we’re in for. But talking
about someone’s mother in that way just made my blood boil. We
can’t set that example here. Millions of people are watching us…
Luckily, he had so many security people there because come on, one
of the two was going to come out worse off, and it wasn’t going to
be me.” 

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

Internationaler Kampfkunst und Kampfsport Kleinanzeiger