‘The Dagestanis couldn’t take him down’… UFC legend reveals insane Ilia Topuria training story in which he KO’d three sparring partners

Following his stunning knockout of Max Holloway last weekend at UFC 308, Ilia Topuria remains not only the featherweight champion of the world but is now the #4 ranked best pound-for-pound fighter on the entire roster.

Even the most die-hard Max Holloway fans were forced to admit that ‘El Matador’ was simply a cut above ‘Blessed’ on the night out in Abu Dhabi, yet stories of the Spanish-Georgian sensation in the training room paint an equally devastating picture.  

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesFormer champion Eddie Alvarez reveals wild Ilia Topuria training camp storyLast weekend, the entire MMA world collectively stood up to applaud Ilia Topuria as he scored a brutal KO over Holloway, only a few months after claiming UFC gold with an equally brutal KO of Alexander Volkanovski – the consensus two greatest featherweights of all time.

“At 145lbs, he’s going to be tough [for anybody] to deal with,” predicted former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez during a recent interview with coach Tim Welch.

‘The Underground King’ then told an insane story about how he once heard of Ilia Topuria knocking out three sparring partners in one session, before outgrappling several established wrestlers from Dagestan during his time training at Kill Cliff MMA.

“I heard through my Kill Cliff buddies that he went over there and buried – like knocked out – three guys in training camp and the Dagestanis couldn’t take him down, he was taking them down!

“I overhear things in training and I’m more concerned with the training than the fight because in a fight you only get a little bit of time to display what you got, but in training when you’re relaxed and doing these things consistently [it’s impressive].”

Topuria is now 16-0 as a professional and 8-0 under the UFC banner; contrary to popular belief, ‘El Matador’ started out as a submission specialist, having only recently fallen in love with his knockout power.

“To hear that he went down to Kill Cliff and knocked out three of his training partners and was willingly taking down these Dagestani guys, it’s like ‘Where and what holes are we dealing with here?!’

WOW: Former UFC champion hails Ilia Topuria as the ‘best boxer’ that’s ever been in the UFC“He just dealt with the volume and endurance of Max Holloway, right? If I’m hearing that he’s really difficult to take down and he started his career just subbing guys, this guy is a weapon all over… It’s going to be fun to watch him move forward.”

If you are thinking that this all seems a bit implausible, it’s worth noting that Alvarez isn’t the only UFC fighter to support this story.

Prior to UFC 308, welterweight Gilbert Burns would also share the same tale, albeit he was far more impressed with the fact that Topuria scored these three KOs “with the big [training] gloves on too.”

Back to Alvarez, who was devastated by the knockout loss suffered by Holloway, so much so that never wants to see ‘Blessed’ fighting at featherweight again.

EXPLAINED: Volkanovski and Lopes tease impending fight with cryptic social media posts

“I love Max, me and my son were crushed [but] I don’t like Max at 145… I feel like he’s been making that cut so much throughout his career and I really liked him at 155, he was able to put [Justin] Gaethje away and take Gaethje’s best shots.

“I think that at 155, he takes those shots, and he would be able to give them back, [whereas] at 145, he’s drained there – he should be done with that weight class.”

What do you think – should Max Holloway stay at 145lbs, or should he return to lightweight for the remainder of his UFC career?

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