When Ilia Topuria got brutally honest about his feelings toward Conor McGregor, claimed Irishman's "aura came from hell"

A year before becoming UFC champion, Ilia Topuria took part in an interview on The Wild Project podcast, during which he described Conor McGregor in less than flattering terms. While conversing with Jordi Wild, 'El Matador' spoke about his lone encounter with McGregor and the impression of the Irishman it left him with.

Despite admiring McGregor and even modeling aspects of his career after him, Topuria felt that the Irishman's presence was unsettling. Furthermore, he implied that McGregor carried himself with an air of superiority, but when asked by the interviewer if that was indeed the case, Topuria pivoted, somewhat.

"No, just a terrible energy. I swear it felt like his aura came from hell, you know what I'm saying? I want to be away from this guy, he has a dark energy. I've never felt anything like that before in my life."

Check out Ilia Topuria describing Conor McGregor's presence (1:20:11):

Topuria and McGregor have had something of a back-and-forth feud as of late, with the Irishman scoffing at the notion of the Spaniard moving up in weight. Both men, however, are on completely different career trajectories. McGregor is no longer the hyper-successful superstar of old. He is 1-3 in his last four fights.

Moreover, he hasn't fought in over three years now and has experienced a fall from grace, especially in light of his latest legal blunder, which has seen the Irish High Court find him liable for assaulting Nikita Hand. Meanwhile, 'El Matador' is on top of the MMA world.

He dethroned Alexander Volkanovski as UFC featherweight champion, knocking him out cold, before doing the same to Max Holloway, whose chin even the Irishman failed to crack.

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Ilia Topuria previously hoped to face Conor McGregor

Despite the unprecedented level of success Ilia Topuria has achieved, he occasionally rubs fans the wrong way. This was noticeable when he captured the UFC featherweight title from Alexander Volkanovski and immediately expressed an interest in fighting Conor McGregor.

His callout of the Irishman raised eyebrows as not only was McGregor unranked in any division, and had shown no true sign of returning to the UFC at the time, and hasn't fought at featherweight in nearly a decade.