Ilia Topuria’s face bust opens in sparring by unknown Dagestani fighter [VIDEO]

There's no denying that Ilia Topuria didn't put the work in ahead of his title fight against Alexander Volkanovski as a recent sparring video emerged that showed him being busted open following the session.

'El Matador's hard work paid off as he earned a vicious knockout win over 'Volk' to become the new featherweight champion at UFC 298 this past Saturday. X user @FightDoctor_ recently uploaded the sparring footage to their account, which showed the new featherweight champion sustaining a cut above his left eye while sparring with Dagestani fighter Abdulaziz Datsilaev.

There didn't appear to be any hard feelings from Topuria as Datsilaev immediately checked on the Georgian to make sure he was okay and the two embraced, which signifies that it was unintentional. On a positive note, the cut wasn't too severe and didn't jeopardize 'El Matador's status for his fight.

Now that Topuria is UFC featherweight champion, it will be interesting to see whether he becomes more selective on who he chooses to spar with in order to avoid similar situations in the future.

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Ilia Topuria opens up about featherweight title win at UFC 298

Ilia Topuria received plenty of criticism due to his confidence ahead of his featherweight title fight against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298.

'El Matador' backed it up in the octagon as he finished 'Volk', who had been a dominant featherweight champion. He recently took to his X account and opened up about his title win and shared a message to his followers that they too should never give up and anything is possible with hard work. He wrote:

"Many will say you can’t do it. They will knock you down and doubt you. But remember, the only one you need to achieve anything is yourself. Trust in yourself, have faith, and work tirelessly because everything will come. It doesn’t matter where you come from if you know where you are going, and what’s in front of you is much more important than what’s behind you! Never ever give up. Just stand up and fight!"

Ilia Topuria's tweet regarding UFC featherweight title win [Image courtesy: @Topuriailia - X]