Ilia Topuria fires back at Conor McGregor: ‘Pray to God our paths don’t cross’

After McGregor suggested he’d cave Topuria’s head in, the featherweight champion responded with his own fiery declaration of war.

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Conor McGregor had plenty to say about Ilia Topuria following the featherweight champion’s brutal knockout win over Max Holloway at UFC 308 (watch the finish here).

Holloway had never been knocked out before in his career — and that included a 2013 fight with the Mac that went to decision. That didn’t stop “The Notorious” from challenging and then throwing shade at the man who now holds his 145 pound belt on X (formerly Twitter).

“Call me,” McGregor tweeted in a series of since-deleted posts, before adding “Cave his head in handy.”

“Good little fighter, too small for anything substantial IMO,” McGregor continued. “He was getting chewed up there.”

“Few [featherweights] now in the mix, and I beat every single one of them. I am that divisions menace. Point blank. Everyone on that list I hurt badly and finish. Not one of them lay a glove on King Mac.”

It’s worth mentioning that McGregor hasn’t fought at featherweight for 9 years now and was set to fight at welterweight for UFC 303 before he withdrew due to a broken pinky toe. It’s kind of crazy to hear him call out 145ers, but at this point his age and inactivity do make a matchup with Topuria an interesting possibility. Meet in the middle at 155?

For his part, “El Matador” turned on his own trash talk after being read some of McGregor’s tweets in a post-fight interview with ESPN.

“I don’t know what to say. He’s fake,” Topuria said. “He’s a fake, he fakes the comeback every time. He insults everyone in the UFC. He’s like, ‘I don’t care about anyone, I don’t respect anyone.’”

“Bro, you’re sick. You have some problems to fix in your in your mind. You need to take some classes of respect or have to trade the people [around you] because you’re gonna end up really, really bad. When you follow this kind of value in your life, you’re gonna end up really bad.”

“So ask to God you don’t cross paths with me never ever,” Topuria concluded. “Because I’m gonna f— you up whenever I’m gonna see you.”