The longest current title reign in the UFC was broken on Saturday night at UFC 298, as Alexander Volkanovski’s unbeaten run at featherweight ended, at the hands of Ilia Topuria.
Topuria became the first UFC champion, representing Spain and Georgia, and has catapulted himself into superstardom. Let’s see what could be next for him, along with the other winners on the main card.
Ilia Topuria
“El Matador” talked a lot of talk on the lead up to this fight, as well as on fight week, but fortunately for him, he then proceeded to walk the walk.
With the 27-year-old now with gold around his waist, there is no doubt that he can now be considered as one of the UFC’s big stars. To end the long reign that Volkanovski has had over the 145lb division is nothing short of spectacular.
The Spanish MMA market is one that is completely untouched, not only by the UFC, but any other major MMA promotions. That will now likely change. In the UFC 298 post fight press conference UFC president, Dana White, mentioned how he’s definitely interested in taking an event to Spain, and even possibly at the Santiago Bernabeu, the soccer stadium of Real Madrid.
So, who could Ilia Topuria’s first title defence come against? The featherweight division…
