“Past embarrassing at this stage” - Ilia Topuria plans to chase Canelo Alvarez boxing fight after winning UFC gold, leaves fans unimpressed

Ilia Topuria has never lacked confidence throughout his career, but the Georgian-Spanish featherweight appears to already be looking well past his upcoming title fight.

Topuria, who is scheduled to face Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298, has already stated that he would want his first title defense to be against former champion Max Holloway.

'El Matador' recently furthered his comments to claim that he wants to pursue a boxing fight with Canelo Alvarez should he defeat Volkanovski.

Ilia Topuria is the next fighter on a long list of mixed martial artists who are aspiring to make the move into boxing following Francis Ngannou's successful debut against Tyson Fury. Sean O'Malley has flirted with the idea of potentially boxing either Gervonta Davis or Devin Haney in the future on X/Twitter.

While Canelo Alvarez has been a popular name called out by UFC fighters, a potential fight with Topuria appears to be more than a long shot. Topuria has fought primarily at 145 pounds in the UFC, while Alvarez has been fighting at middleweight for the duration of his career, weighing in at around 160 pounds.

Most fans were unimpressed by Topuria's lofty career goals, largely due to his lack of major success in MMA to date. Fatigue has likely also set in on fans, with many fighters attempting to chase high expectations too soon.

One particularly upset fan commented:

"This is past embarrassing at this stage..."

Similarly, few fans in the comments were supportive of the fighter's boxing aspirations. Others wrote:

"I get secondhand embarrassment whenever I see a UFC fighter try to get a boxing fight set up, whenever they have the smallest amount of hype."

"This is ridiculous in many ways"

"Ilia is already annoying and he hasn't even accomplished anything"

"The MMA dudes chasing boxing champs is getting super old. Trying to get the bag get it. But comes off desperate in a way."

View more fan reactions to Ilia Topuria's callout below:

Fan reactions to Ilia Topuria stating his boxing aspirations on X [via @mmafighting on X]