Ilia Topuria's brother gets honest about Alexander Volkanovski cornering his opponent at UFC 312 fight: "We won that battle"

At UFC 312, Ilia Topuria corners his brother Aleksandre Topuruia in a prelim bout. However, curiously, Alexander Volkanovski will corner his opponent, Colby Thicknesse. Given that 'The Great' is a past opponent of 'El Matador,' it led to much talk about a rivalry. Aleksandre, though, has dismissed it.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, Aleksandre brushed off any notion that his brother's competitive rivalry with Volkanovski has bled into his fight with Thicknesse.

According to Aleksandre, the rivalry is nonexistent, as his brother has already beaten Volkanovski in decisive fashion.

"There's no rivalry. There's Aleksandre Topuria and Colby inside the cage. I've been there, we won that battle. We had, one time, that battle. Pressure going to be on him [Thicknesse]. There is no pressure to me, and if Alexander Volkanovski going to be there, happy for him. Very good. See you there."

Check out Aleksandre Topuria dismissing any rivalry with camp Volkanovski (13:35):

Ilia and Volkanovski had something of a rivalry ahead of their UFC 298 clash. While it was largely built around both men's hyper-competitive nature, there were still trash talk and mind games from the Spaniard, which seemed to irk an otherwise dismissive Volkanovski.

Ultimately, Topuria proved right to be so confident, as he made relatively short work of the Australian legend by knocking him out cold in round two to claim featherweight gold. Now, the two are expected to face each other in a highly-anticipated rematch.

Though Topuria's interest in facing Volkanovski again seem to be waning as he now aims for different ambitions.

---

Ilia Topuria is aiming to face Islam Makhachev

Ilia Topuria has been calling out UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev from the very moment he became featherweight king. However, he first had to solidify his claim to the 145-pound throne by beating Max Holloway, which he did, knocking him out cold. Now, he is targeting the Dagestani star.

Following the lightweight champion's win over Renato Moicano at UFC 311, Topuria took to X with the following taunt:

"Islam, if I want to, I can finish you. If I want to, I can knock you out. I'll make it look easy. See you soon."

While the UFC has been relatively silent about Topuria's next fight, they haven't confirmed a rematch with him and Alexander Volkanovski. Instead, there are now rumors abound that a Topuria vs. Makhachev fight is in the works.