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UFC star Ilia Topuria is grateful to his brother Aleksandre for stopping the fight in his UFC Freedom 250 clash with Justin Gaethje.
In the main event of UFC Freedom 250, Ilia Topuria was unable to continue against Justin Gaethje and subsequently lost his UFC lightweight championship. His brother, Aleksandre, was the one who seemingly made the call to stop the fight due to the damage taken by Ilia.
RELATED: Ilia Topuria answers Alexander Volkanovski’s rematch callout with surprising response
Now, Ilia Topuria seems to be healthy and ready to get back in the cage. We have a rough idea of when that will happen, and there are plenty of options out there for him to consider.
In a recent interview, Ilia Topuria was quick to praise his brother for what must have been a difficult decision at the White House.
Ilia Topuria on UFC Freedom 250 stoppage
“Listen, in myself, me personally, I wouldn’t say, ‘Stop it,’ but I respect the decision that my brother took in that moment. I would do the same. Because I couldn’t see. I couldn’t open my eyes. In the second round — I don’t remember if it was in the second or third round — when the doctor came in and just asked me, ‘Can you see?’ I’m like, I can’t see. I’m sweating; I have my eye full of blood. I feel like I have thousands of crystals in my eye. So weird.
“Listen, I dedicated my entire life to this sport. I saw many sparring sessions, many fights. I’ve done this for my entire life, but I never saw someone with two orbital bones broken, two bones broken, with his foot broken, in a fight. That was so weird, like, I remember the thoughts I had in the fight. Like, ‘Why, in one of the most important moments in my life, I can’t see, I can’t breathe, it’s so weird. And I have a guy in front of me that has everything but not good intentions. He wants to take my head off.’ It’s a weird place to be.”
“100 percent. If he wouldn’t have stopped the fight, probably I wouldn’t be able to fight again in my life,” Topuria continued.
“I’m so grateful with my brother that he decided to stop me, because I love what I’m doing. I had a bad experience, but I still have a lot of things ahead of me. So it would be very sad to me if I would hear from a doctor or anyone that I wouldn’t be able to fight anymore.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
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