Joe Rogan is concerned that Ilia Topuria may be coming back too soon after being beaten by Justin Gaethje in June.
Topuria was considered unstoppable by many when he met Gaethje on the White House lawn, but saw Gaethje shrug off Ilia’s hardest punches and fire back damaging shots that. blinded by “El Matador” in both eyes. Three months later, Topuria has come out of the media hiatus again and it seems promoting an imminent return.
Too soon? Maybe according to Rogan.
“It will be interesting to see how he bounces back because it was a lot of damage,” Rogan said on the latest episode of his podcast. “Two broken orbitals, they had to stop the fight between rounds. And he took some big shots from a guy with f–king rocks in his hands. He’s had a few months, but he’ll probably need about six months before he can spar again.”
“He’s a very strong man mentally, and I think he’ll bounce back in that regard,” Rogan continued. “There’s just the reality of how much damage there is and only he knows how much damage he actually took in that fight, how it affects him… you only get a few fights like that in your career and you have to be very careful how you recover from them.”
“A lot of fighters, a lot of great fighters, have made the mistake of coming back too soon,” he said. “I keep pointing to Volkanovski, who is arguably the greatest featherweight of all time. He’s one of the most masterful fighters in the game. He took a short, short-notice fight with Islam (Makhatchov) in the rematch and got headbutted, and then I think it wasn’t until four months later that he fought Ilia.”
“And it’s crazy. It’s a crazy thing to do. He hits a full head shot, he hits a dome on the shins, he gets hit, and then four months later he’s fighting the scariest challenger he’s ever faced.”
Now there is talk that the UFC threw Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria straight into the cage for an immediate rematch. This is quite a challenge for Topuria considering what happened in their last fight. Would he agree to a fight? We’re sure he would. Would his team prefer a “soft rebound” against Paddy Pimblett? We’re sure they would too.
There’s one good thing about the rematch against Gaethje right now: The new lightweight champion has said he’s not interested in fighting again this year. That gives Topuria a few more months to recover if the UFC goes that route. Otherwise… Ilia vs. Paddy in December, anyone?
