The newly crowned UFC BMF champion, Max Holloway could be the hottest featherweight in the world right now. Holloway knocked out the most violent fighter in the promotion, Justin Gaethje with a devastating right hook at the 4:58 mark of the 5th round. The KO made him the talk of the MMA world and he might just end up becoming the KO of the year for 2024 given the moment and manner. However, UFC featherweight champ, Ilia Topuria doesn’t seem to agree with the majority.

Holloway made his intention clear after the fight, calling out the UFC featherweight Champion, Ilia Topuria in his post-fight interview. Given how the Hawaiian finished Gaethje at the UFC 300, quite a ton of people are under the assumption that the BMF champ has a claim to a fight against Ilia Topuria at UFC 300. However, “El Matador” doesn’t seem to share the same feeling.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani at  “The MMA Hour” a few days ago, he explained why he doesn’t believe Max Holloway has done enough to earn a shot at his title. In the interview, he stated, “Without the BMF belt, I don’t want to fight Max at all. If not, I’m gonna fight with Volk who deserves more than him, the rematch. He’s been saying ‘right now I have a lot of options’, he doesn’t have any options.”  However, his rant didn’t stop there.

Topuria started his morning by posting a picture of Max Holloway battered after his trilogy fight with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276 with the caption, “Good Morning”. Topuria’s post on his Instagram story faced tons of backlash from fight fans. Here are some of the reactions of fight fans on a repost of the story.

Fight fans blast Ilia Topuria for mocking Holloway on his Instagram story

Some fans believed that Topuria was just jealous of Holloway for taking all the limelight after his KO win over Gaethje, “Ilia’s mad he’s not the most popular featherweight”, Max has the world talking. Ilia seems to be trying to use Max’s fame to his advantage. He isn’t a BMF contender”

Another commented on the post making it seem like “El Matador” fought a Volkanovski who was past his prime; “Prime volk would eat ilia easy”

A fan wanted the BMF champ to humble the  featherweight champ; “Fuck I hope max destroys him”

One fan accused Topuira of feeling jealous of Holloway; “I feel like Ilia is jealous that everyone talking about max more than him so thats why he’s talking shit”

While some fight fans reminded everyone how Topuria looked after Holloway finished Justin Gaethje; “Isn’t he the same guy who shat bricks after Max ko’d Justin”, “He also mocked himself, we saw it after the Max fight.”

So, how do you think these two stack up against each other?