Ilia Topuria isn’t exactly sitting around feeling sorry for himself. After getting handed the first loss of his pro MMA career by Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 in June and losing his lightweight title as a result, ‘El Matador’ disappeared for much of the summer and kept things pretty low-key.

Now, though, he’s finally talking about what that brutal setback did to him mentally. And the wild part? It didn’t break him. It only made him hungrier for vengeance.

“Something happened that I did not expect: defeat did not extinguish the fire. It made it bigger,” Topuria said in his native Spanish in an Instagram reel. “I wanted more than ever to train, to return, and to do things right. I had hit the ground, but hitting the ground does not mean you have to stay there. You can also use it to push yourself back up.

“I understood that I would feel truly defeated the day I lost my love for what I do, the excitement, or that motivation that had been with me since I was a child. Then I would have a problem. But that had not happen. Exactly the opposite had happened: I still wanted to come back.”

The loss came nearly three months ago, when Justin Gaethje handed Ilia Topuria the first defeat of his pro career in the main event of UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. And to be fair, it was truly a shocker. ‘El Matador’ had looked damn near untouchable up to that point, having ‘The Kiss of Death’ in his knuckles, as Joe Rogan once called it.

So watching him finally get stopped was a serious reality check. Before going one-on-one with ‘The Highlight’, Topuria had been tearing through the UFC, picking up titles at featherweight and lightweight while keeping that perfect record intact.

The Spanish-Georgian walked into the fight as one of the most feared young names in the sport, seemingly on top of the world. Then Gaethje flipped the whole script on him. So, it’s no surprise that Ilia Topuria pretty much went off the radar after this one.

Fans would still catch the occasional glimpse of him, but he largely kept himself off social media. In fact, his first real personal post came when he opened up to his son, Hugo, in a heartfelt message thanking him for being there and reflecting on how the two of them had come out of the tough stretch even stronger.

Now, ‘El Matador’ has finally pulled back the curtain on what was going on behind the scenes. And instead of making him question whether he still wanted to fight, the loss seems to have done the exact opposite.

“I could not even fully explain why,” he further said in the reel. “Love? Ego? Money? Competition? I do not know. I am still discovering it.

“And I like being able to admit that, because some questions do not need an immediate answer.”

For Ilia Topuria, the Gaethje fight does not represent the ultimate measure of whether he has been beaten. As long as ‘El Matador’ still has that fire to train, compete, and get back in there, he sees the loss as something to learn from. And, more importantly, the 29-year-old sees it as something to build on.

This very mindset could be the first step towards a comeback just like the one Cain Velasquez pulled off. Velasquez tore through the early part of his UFC run, going 9-0 before running through Brock Lesnar and grabbing the heavyweight title.

Then came Junior dos Santos, who stunned him with a 64-second knockout in Cain Velasquez’s very first title defence. However, that loss didn’t break the UFC legend. Instead, he bounced back in his next fight and, when he got another crack at dos Santos, absolutely steamrolled him to win the heavyweight belt back.

Now Ilia Topuria finds himself in a similar spot. For the first time in his career, the Spanish-Georgian has got something to prove after taking a serious setback. But there’s one pretty big difference.

‘El Matador’ doesn’t seem interested in brushing the loss under the rug or acting like it never happened. If anything, his latest message hints that he’s looking straight at it, trying to figure out what the defeat exposed about him and what he needs to fix before he steps back into the cage.

Ilia Topuria opens up about his next fight

Ilia Topuria may have found his fire again, but there’s still one big question hanging over his comeback: when and where is he actually fighting next?

Well, the former lightweight champion made it clear in the same video that he doesn’t have all the answers yet. He can’t give his supporters a timeline, and he’s not making any promises about what comes next.

“I do not know what my next fight will look like, and I cannot promise any result,” he said. “But I can promise something that depends entirely on me: you will not see me stop trying.”

That idea seems to be at the heart of how Ilia Topuria is looking at this whole chapter of his career. He doesn’t want fans to remember him as the guy who never got knocked down. He’d rather be remembered as the guy who kept finding a way to get back up whenever it happened.

And that makes his next fight a pretty big one. ‘El Matador’ won’t just be trying to get his hand raised again; he’ll be looking to rebuild his confidence and remind everyone why he belongs at the very top of the UFC.

As for a rematch with Justin Gaethje? That doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon. ‘The Highlight’ has already poured cold water on the idea of running it back if he decides to keep fighting into 2027.

That has opened the door to other possibilities, including a potential grudge match with Paddy Pimblett. In fact, Sean O’Malley has already thrown his two cents into the matchup, and his pick might raise a few eyebrows, as he is actually leaning towards ‘The Baddy.’

Of course, the elephant in the room would be the size difference, as Paddy Pimblett’s bigger frame could give him a serious physical edge.

However, for now, Ilia Topuria’s main focus seems to be getting himself back out there and finishing up his recovery.

As for his return timeline, Spanish reporter Alvaro Colmenero recently said that ‘El Matador’ is expected to make his return to the spotlight sometime this month. While it may not be inside the Octagon, he will at least be in front of the cameras soon.

“Very soon, within the next few days, I know Ilia is going to return to the public eye,” Colmenero said. “I still don’t know exactly how it’s going to happen; I don’t know what form it will take, but I do know that Ilia is going to return to the public eye directly in the month of September.

“July was clearly about healing his injuries and undergoing treatments, August was for vacation, and in September, he returns to the public eye.”

Now that Ilia Topuria is opening up about what that first loss really taught him, the next chapter of his career isn’t going to be about protecting that perfect record anymore. That part is gone. Now, it’s about showing everyone what ‘El Matador’ can do after finally getting knocked back.

And if there’s one thing the Spanish-Georgian wants fans to know, it’s this: the loss to Justin Gaethje didn’t put out his fire. If anything, it may have given him another reason to burn even brighter.