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Ilia Topuria backs Conor McGregor ahead of return against Max Holloway at UFC 303​

Ilia Topuria is confident that Conor McGregor will win his comeback fight, and he’s hoping it goes that way too.

McGregor has spoken highly of his training camp, claiming he’s ‘better than ever’ as he prepares for a long-awaited return to the Octagon in July.

Even though Max Holloway isn’t overlooking McGregor, by July 11 it will have been over five years since the Irishman last stepped into the cage.

This fight is set for welterweight, but the current lightweight champion will still be paying close attention to this main event.

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Ilia Topuria backs Conor McGregor to beat Max Holloway and hopes he does to set up a clash between them​

Back in 2024, Ilia Topuria became the only man to knock out Max Holloway when he defended his featherweight title before moving up a division.

Though he wasn’t impressed by the main event of UFC 329, ‘El Matador’ still sees McGregor’s return as a positive for MMA. He thinks Conor has the tools to pull off another win over Holloway.

“It’s going to be a fight, I think, of purely striking where we will not see anything of, no wrestling or ground game, and don’t you think Conor is much worse than Max? They are going to hit each other like two kittens,” Topuria told Carlos Contreras Legaspi.

“They will be there touching each other, marauding, but I think is going to win as they fought once, he got it and this time, he can beat him. He must beat him. He must beat him.”

Topuria isn’t just predicting a McGregor win—he’s hoping for one. In his view, a victory for Conor could pave the way for them to finally share the Octagon.

He added: “In fact, I believe that if you would ask me who I want to win and the one that suits me best to win is Conor because if he wins and then he has one more fight, we could end up having that fight.”

This isn’t just about titles or rankings for Topuria; it’s about making fights that matter. And few matchups would draw more attention than him facing off against McGregor.

The Irishman hasn’t been shy in dismissing Topuria in the past, but there’s no denying that their names together on a card would get fans talking in a big way.

This won’t change even though his return is scheduled at welterweight, and it’s worth noting that Ilia has openly talked about wanting to move up soon, too.

He was even supposed to challenge Islam Makhachev next month for the welterweight belt until plans shifted, and now Justin Gaethje will get his shot at ‘El Matador’ instead.

Read more:

• Tom Aspinall’s bold claim: The surprising way Rico Verhoeven could dethrone Oleksandr Usyk
• White House invitation fallout: Tito Ortiz slams Dana White
• Must-watch alert: Max Holloway believes Conor McGregor is still a huge rival before UFC 329

Read the full recap...