Ilia Topuria wins featherweight title at UFC 298

A new UFC featherweight champion has been crowned.

Ilia Topuria defeated Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 on Saturday to win the featherweight championship for the first time. Topuria knocked out Volkanovski with a punch at 3:32 of round 2. This ends Volkanovski’s reign as featherweight champion after 1,526 days, winning the title from Max Holloway at UFC 251 back on December 14, 2019.

After the fight, Topuria said he felt happy and said that the only person you need to have your back is yourself. He also called out Conor McGregor, saying “if you still have some balls, I’ll be waiting for you in Spain.”

Volkanovski congratulated Topuria, saying he knew he was a hard hitter coming in and brought up the idea of facing Topuria in Spain for a rematch.

Aiming to become a champion in two different weight divisions, Volkanovski challenged for the UFC lightweight title last year, losing to Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in only his second-ever loss. After unifying the featherweight title by defeating Yair Rodriguez, he then lost a rematch to Makhachev in October.