Daniel Cormier praises Ilia Topuria’s “Smart” approach to viral Max Holloway face-to-face

UFC analyst Daniel Cormier believes UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria might’ve helped himself dramatically in his recent joint interview with Max Holloway.

Topuria will make his first UFC featherweight title defense against Holloway in the UFC 308 main event. He returns to the Octagon after finishing Alexander Volkanovski to cap off his unbeaten run with a world championship.

Ahead of one of the biggest fights of the year, Topuria and Holloway ramped up their pre-fight promotion in a joint interview with ESPN. The two sides expressed mutual respect and animosity simultaneously, for what will be the first of many times the two featherweights will be face-to-face ahead of fight night.

Cormier feels Topuria took a brilliant strategic approach to his face-to-face with Holloway.

Daniel Cormier: Ilia Topuria successfully got under Max Holloway’s skin

During a recent edition of Good Guy/Bad Guy with Chael Sonnen, Cormier explained how Topuria won the exchange with Holloway.

“Here’s why this worked. You got to see Max Holloway a little bit mad,” Cormier said of Topuria. “It felt like Ilia Topuria has now gotten to the point where Max doesn’t like him…he respected Max in his career path and the things that he did. I don’t know that now, he respects him in that way, and I think it’s very smart of Topuria not to hold that respect and have that ‘like’ for Max Holloway…

“Because the last guy that Max Holloway fought, Justin Gaethje, who liked Max. He had no bad feelings towards Max. He said he couldn’t get himself ready, because Max is a great guy. Everybody loves Max. Max Holloway put him out with one of the most devastating knockouts we’ve seen in a really long time. Ilia Topuria’s not having any of that. He’s saying ‘I’m going to knock you out!’…this dude Ilia is so confident, but why wouldn’t he be? He’s the world champion…if you can fight the way that this man fights, then you can carry yourself in that way.”

Topuria will look to hand Holloway his first career knockout loss. Holloway earned the UFC featherweight title shot after wins over Arnold Allen, The Korean Zombie, and Justin Gaethje.