Ilia Topuria Eyes Title Defense vs. Max Holloway, Conor McGregor Fight in Spain

Ilia Topuria wants to defend his title against Max Holloway and then fight Conor McGregor at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Spain.

Topuria became the featherweight champion with a second-round knockout win over Alexander Volkanovski at Brian Ortega as an ideal opponent for his first title defense, “El Matador” has now changed his tune.

Topuria recently laid down a two-fight plan to first defend his strap against Holloway and then face McGregor in “the biggest fight in MMA history.” Topuria is plotting a fight against “Notorious” at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of football club Real Madrid, and expects it to shatter all records. The Spaniard also recently claimed to have a date for the UFC’s planned debut in his home country this year.

“So, I hope to defend the belt with Max Holloway and then I want to fight with Conor McGregor hopefully," Topuria told Sportskeeda MMA. "If he wins his upcoming fight, that’s the fight what I’m looking for. So hopefully it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna be the biggest fight in the MMA history, the biggest ticketing, the biggest pay-per-view, the biggest everything. We gonna have like 80,000 people watching the fight in the arena… Yeah, it’s gonna be in the Bernabeu.”

Holloway became the BMF champion with a lopsided fifth-round TKO win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 last month. Meanwhile, McGregor is slated to return to action after three years in a welterweight matchup against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29.

While Topuria is open to moving up a weight class to fight McGregor, “El Matador” isn’t eyeing a contest against reigning lightweight champ Islam Makhachev yet.

“Maybe, maybe in the future,” he said. “Right now, I just see the Max Holloway fight, the Conor fight and maybe if he [Makhachev] keeps defending the belt, keeps becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, maybe one day we can see that fight too. But for the moment, for right now, he’s not in my list.”