Former UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski's chance of reclaiming his title will have to wait, after suggestions new champ Ilia Topuria rejected a rematch in Perth at UFC 305.
Topuria stopped Volkanovski in the second round to claim the featherweight title in February, ending the Australian champion's four-year reign with a devastating series of strikes.
Topuria (15-0), who lives and trains in Spain, apparently knocked back a rematch offer from the UFC, which would have given Volkanovski the chance to regain his title on home soil.
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"I don't know who he wants to fight next," Joe Rogan said on his podcast in an episode featuring former UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway, who is said to be favoured to face Topuria.
"But I guess he feels like he's the champ, he can call the shots.
"I know he turned down the Perth one — (UFC) 305, the Volkanovski rematch."
Topuria is said to be playing hardball on who he fights for his first title defence, preferring it be in Spain, with Holloway provoking a lengthy post from the Georgian- Spanish fighter, who demanded the Hawaiian native put his BMF title on the line if the two were to fight.
Holloway poked fun at the post, telling Rogan he did not bother to read it because it looked like an "angry girlfriend text".
"Ilia didn't want to fight anyone in the top 15, (he wants to fight) himself, I don't know, motherf—er wants to fight himself. This is the guy we're dealing with, we had a bible verse-off on Twitter (X) everybody is saying 10-8 Holloway because of the verse I used against him.
https://twitter.com/Topuriailia/status/1781112929745617017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
"He writes like a freaking paragraph to me," Holloway added.
"I didn't even read it, that's how long it was. He writes a paragraph to me, and I was just tripping out. It was like an angry girlfriend text, you know. Like my wife don't even text me like that."
"I read the first sentence and I was like, 'I'm not reading this bro'. What the hell is wrong with you? I don't know what's going on. I read the first two and then I saw you had to scroll, I was like what the f—? Did I make my wife mad? I had to make sure that wasn't her."
Topuria's meteoric rise through the UFC ranks came off the back of six consecutive victories in less than three years, but his resistance in running it back with Volkanovski is not a good look, says former UFC heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier.
"You need the name (on your record) that comes from the generation before. Ilia seems to be taking another approach, I don't know exactly what it is," Cormier said in his recent YouTube video.
"He said he wasn't going to fight Brian Ortega, he said he wasn't going to fight Max Holloway and now it sounds like he's not wanting to fight Alexander Volkanovski again.
"Those are the names from the featherweight paths, he doesn't seem to want to fight those guys.
"I don't know if he has as much say as he thinks he does. Max Holloway is clearly the (next) guy, if not, Alexander Volkanovski.
"Right now it's not coming off great, because he's batting away all these guys with no clear idea of who else there is."
Volkanovski (26-4) had made five consecutive successful title defences since winning his belt in late 2019, but his reign ended with his first featherweight loss in UFC competition.
The Aussie also lost twice in the past year to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in a failed bid to become a two-division champ.
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