Ilia Topuria Explains Why He Respects Khabib Nurmagomedov, But Not His Teammates

Ilia Topuria shows respect to Khabib, but
goes IN on his cousins/teammates 😳

“One thing I respect about Khabib, the guy is super respectful… I
mentioned Islam, and all the cousins come out.

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They’ve never knocked anyone out, they get caught using steroids,
they’re super… pic.twitter.com/Bxmm77AEG0
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
October 21, 2024

Ilia
Topuria doesn’t have the same respect for Khabib
Nurmagomedov’s teammates as he does for “The Eagle.”

Topuria is slated to defend his featherweight title against
Max
Holloway in the main event at UFC 308
this Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. If he defends his
strap successfully, “El Matador” has expressed interest in
challenging lightweight champ Islam
Makhachev, leading to a war of words with the Dagestani
contingent.

Umar
Nurmagomedov, Usman
Nurmagomedov, Tagir
Ulanbekov and Abubakar
Nurmagomedov all teamed up to throw online barbs at Topuria.
The beef initially started with Topuria claiming he can get the
better of Makhachev in a street fight. However, the
Georgian-Spaniard finds it silly of Makhachev’s teammates to try to
intimidate him with street fight threats.

Topuria also took digs at the lack of finishes on some of the
Dagestani fighters’ records and Bellator
lightweight champ Usman’s recent drug testing failure. While
Topuria paid his respect to former
UFC lightweight champ and Hall of Famer Khabib, he doesn’t feel
the same way about the latter’s teammates. However, Topuria
acknowledged Makhachev as the best of the current group.

“One thing I respect about Khabib, the guy is really super
respectful. He never says anything about anybody. People talk a
lot, he never says anything about anybody,” Topuria recently told
KOI Menero MMA. “I mentioned Islam and all the cousins come out.
They have never knocked anyone out, they get caught using steroids,
they’re super cheaters and suddenly they jump. The only thing it
tells me is that they have a damaged nervous system from taking so
many steroids. Because that’s the first thing that gets damaged.
Threatening a fighter with: ’When we see each other, I’m going to
hit you.’ It’s like, man. I dedicate my life to fighting. Let them
be a little more creative. I don’t know what to say. Their best is
Islam.”

Topuria extended his perfect record to 15-0 with a title win over
Alexander
Volkanovski via knockout at UFC 298 this past February.
Meanwhile, Holloway comes off a BMF title win over Justin
Gaethje at lightweight at UFC 300 in April. And Makhachev has
been recovering from a hand injury suffered in his third successful
lightweight defense against Dustin
Poirier at UFC 302 in June.