It was past 2.30am on Sunday when Ilia Topuria walked into the post-fight conference in dark shades, a black silk shirt, and suit with a red rose pinned to the collar.
He was the last fighter to attend after retaining his featherweight title belt at UFC 308 in style at the Etihad Arena.
Topuria was dressed for the occasion throughout all his pre-fight appearances while his peers arrived in sweatshirts and trainers, acknowledging that he loved to present himself well-groomed and in nice clothes.
His attention to detail matches his mindset in the ring, embodying his meticulous approach to presentation and as if to represent the fruits of his labour.
Topuria carried two title belts to the conference room, the UFC featherweight and the BMF that belonged to Max Holloway, whom he defeated in a third-round knockout on the night.
“I never understand why they didn't put the BMF belt on the line. It has to be on the line since the first day, but they don't want to make it official. I'm going to make it official by myself and now keep it at my house,” he said when asked why he was carrying the BMF belt unannounced by the promotion.
Topuria became the first to knock out former champion Holloway when he dropped him with a crunching left hook to the right side of the jaw one minute and 34 seconds into the third round. The result also extended his perfect record to 16-0.
“I called this because I knew it, it's a surprise for a lot of people, but for me, it's like I knew it,” he said.
“I said it, and I did it. I had to change the game plan a little bit, but at the end of the day I get the knockout.”
The UFC president Dana White hinted that a rematch between Topuria and Alexander Volkanovski could be next, but the champion insisted the Australian still had to face someone else before earning a title contest with him.
“To be honest, at this point, there's no one else that deserves the shot more than him,” he said of Volkanovski.
“He’s a great champion, he's a legend in the featherweight division so he deserves a shot without any doubt, but at the same time, it's that he has to meet someone else before facing me.”
Topuria knocked out Volkanovski when they last met in February and the Australian has not fought since then, having lost to Islam Makhachev in October last year.
The Georgian-Spanish Topuria said that it wasn’t his business when and who the promotion would bring for his next title defence.
“I don't care who is my next challenger. I'm going to be ready, I'm just going to ask the UFC when, where, who is the opponent and I will be there and I'm going to do the same thing as always,” he added.
“I’m not in a hurry. I'm 27 and the world champion. I just defend my belt. I want to go step by step, you know. The concept I always follow is that the slow is the fastest way to get where you want to be. So, I want to choose my steps very, very carefully.”
At the end of the post-fight presser at around 3am, Topuria, obliged to pose for photos with the large contingent of Spanish and Georgian media present, and said the party was just beginning for him.
“This celebration is not over,” he added. “We're going to keep celebrating after this press conference. Trust me, it's going to be much better than the one you saw inside the octagon.”
Holloway matched Topuria in the first two rounds and even had one judge awarding him the first round.
“The first couple of rounds, he landed a couple of right hooks, left hooks. Didn't feel too strong and you know, give him inches, man, give him inches and then I found myself looking at him from the ground. So, it is what it was,” Holloway said.
“I felt good in there. I was landing shots. I thought we had the second round too. I know he landed some big shots, but I was a little bit busier. He then landed the perfect shot.
“I just told him [Topuria] ‘congrats’, he's done it. All that talk that he does, he just does it for you [the media]. He seems like a really cool guy, so at the end of the day, he's just being nice, telling me I'm a legend. He watched my career coming up, he takes a lot of inspiration.”
