Daniel Cormier theorizes that UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria is no longer motivated to defend his title.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) recently said he’s interested in moving up to lightweight for his next fight to take on top contender Charles Oliveira. Topuria also hinted that we’ve likely seen his final fight at 145 pounds.
Topuria knocked out featherweight greats Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway back to back, becoming the first to finish Holloway by strikes at UFC 308.
“When you beat the best guys, especially the two guys that ruled the division for so long, there can be a little bit of fatigue in there,” Cormier said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Ben Askren. “It’s not like muscle fatigue; it’s mental fatigue. You have to be so up to do what he did to Max Holloway and to do what he did to Volkanovski.
“I don’t care what people tell you. The only ones that believe that he would do what he did was Ilia Topuria and his team. You can’t think that that was going to happen just being on the outside. He went out, and he knocked out Max Holloway. That doesn’t happen. You don’t knock out Max Holloway. He knocked out Volkanovski. You don’t do those things back to back.”
There are fresh matchups such as Movsar Evloev and Diego Lopes awaiting Topuria at featherweight, but Cormier explains that after “El Matador” took out the biggest names, he’ll have a hard time getting up for the rising contenders.
“Now (he) went from fighting two established veteran stars, people that sell pay-per-view, the BMF champion, to now (he’s) got to fight a guy that’s on the upswing,” Cormier said. “A guy that’s on the rise, a guy that truly is who I was only a couple fights ago.”
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier explains how ‘mental fatigue’ is reason for Ilia Topuria’s odd callout of Charles Oliveira
