Ilia Topuria has claimed that since meeting Conor McGregor at UFC 264 in 2021, he felt like the Irishman had a 'black energy' that he had never felt before.
Just one year into his UFC tenure, Ilia Topuria found herself on the undercard of one of the biggest combat sports stars ever: Conor McGregor.
The Irishman was set to return to the Octagon for a second time in 2021 to settle his rivalry with Dustin Poirier.
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Ilia Topuria claims Conor McGregor had 'energy from hell' at UFC 264
Ahead of their second meeting earlier this year, McGregor and 'The Diamond' were extremely respectful and it was a surprising change from his usual pre-fight antics.
Despite this, the energy between 'The Notorious' and Poirier completely changed in the lead-up to their trilogy and the Irishman returned to his old self by talking down his opponent.
The undercard of the massive event featured a featherweight bout between 'El Matador' and Ryan Hall. At the time, there was a lot of excitement about the Spaniard, but no one really knew how far he would go.
Topuria knocked Hall unconscious in the first round after a huge KO punch, which was his first experience fighting at a major UFC event.
McGregor, of course, lost to Poirier in the first round of their main event after suffering a broken ankle.
After the event, Topuria came out and commented on what it was like fighting on McGregor's undercard, claiming he felt extremely bad energy from the Irishman.
“Super bad vibes,” Topuria began to explain.
“Look. If we analyze people as human beings, let's look at Conor. A man, his wife, his children, his family, I can't give an opinion. I don't know what these people are like. He might be a excellent person and I perceived his energy in a different way than it is.
“He just came to work to put on a show, but the feeling I had when he was around was: keep him away! Keep him away!
“Just a terrible energy. I swear, it felt like his aura came from hell, you know what I mean? I want to get away from this guy, he has black energy, I had never felt that before,” Topuria continued.
Conor McGregor and Ilia Topuria have since shared words
It's fair to say that Topuria's opinion of McGregor hasn't changed since their first meeting in 2021 and the Spaniard hoped they would one day share the cage together.
Recently, false rumors started circulating that the UFC was exploring the potential of McGregor vs. Topuria in 2025, but McGregor came out and revealed that he is in talks to fight Logan Paul in the boxing ring instead.
'The Notorious' has previously claimed he would 'smack the crap out of' Topuria if asked about a potential fight against him during a live stream.
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