Ilia Topuria, 27, has been crowned as the new featherweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Fighting out of Alicante, Spain by way of Georgia, he is still an undefeated mixed martial artist.
Featuring 12 MMA matches, “UFC 298” was held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, United States on February 17, 2024. In the main event of the evening, Topuria challenged the then reigning UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski, 35, of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Jason Herzog served as the referee of the title bout. He stopped the bout after 3 minutes and 32 seconds when Topuria knocked out Volvanovski via punch.
Losing to Topuria downgraded Volkanovski’s professional MMA record to 26 wins and 4 losses. On the other hand, the Georgian-Spanish MMA fighter now has 15 wins and 0 loss.
On December 14, 2019, Volkanovski became the new UFC Featherweight Champion by dethroning the then champion Max Holloway. Volkanovski successfully defended the title from Holloway on July 12, 2020 and July 2, 2022, Brian Ortega on September 25, 2021, Jung Chan-sung on April 9, 2022 and Yair Rodriguez on July 8, 2023.
Born in Halle Westfalen, Germany to Georgian parents, Topuria moved from Germany to Georgia in 2004. In 2012, he moved to Alicante.
Topuria is a citizen of both Georgia and Spain. He made his professional MMA debut on April 4, 2015 and his UFC debut on October 11, 2020.
CONAN Daily 