Joe Rogan isn’t ready to write off Ilia Topuria.
Topuria (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) lost his lightweight title to Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 from the White House in Washington. He was battered in a Round 4 doctor’s stoppage TKO loss.
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While the likes of Paddy Pimblett and Michael Bisping question if Topuria will ever be the dominant force he once was after sustaining so much damage, Rogan thinks the setback will only make the former UFC dual-champion hungrier.
“I’m a giant Ilia Topuria fan, as well,” Rogan said in a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience.” “I think he’ll be back better than ever. Sometimes, a loss is one of the most important things a fighter could ever have because they realize you can be beat. You need to know that you’re a human.
“You can’t just throw caution to the wind sometimes and just engage in these wild scraps. Sometimes you have to be a little bit more tactical, and sometimes you have to realize you can’t take everybody out, and that’s the case with Justin. He couldn’t take him out, and he almost did in the second round. It got real f*cking close.”
Rogan was surprised to see Gaethje (28-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) such a big underdog heading into the fight, which makes the moment that much more special.
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“For him to pull that off the way he did at the White House was nuts,” Rogan said. “Some books had him a 6-1 underdog, and Ilia Topuria is so f*cking good, and he had him in sick trouble in that second round. I watched it again yesterday. The second round was brutal. Ilia was just destroying his liver, but even in the second round, Justin still bloodied Ilia up.
“His face was busted up. He was getting the most damage to Ilia’s face, and that was a giant factor in the fight. I don’t know what the accuracy of these reports, but what’s being reported is that he had two broken orbital bones and a broken nose. So, both of his eyes were broken, and his nose was broken. Justin was here a couple of days later, and he looked great. It’s just nuts.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joe Rogan: Ilia Topuria needed to know he was human, will bounce back
