Joe Rogan hopes Ilia Topuria takes enough time off to fully heal after losing his lightweight title at UFC Freedom 250.
Topuria (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) was battered by Justin Gaethje (28-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) this past June, when he broke both his orbital bones. Topuria was a big favorite in the fight but wound up losing for the first time in his career by injury TKO. With the amount of damage Topuria suffered in the fight, Rogan urges him not to make a quick turnaround – especially with Jon Anik claiming there are talks of a potential rematch with Gaethje.
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“It’s going to be interesting to see how he rebounds because that was a lot of damage,” Rogan said of Topuria on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “Two fractured orbitals, they had to stop the fight in between rounds, and he took big punches from a guy who’s got f*cking rocks in his hands. Justin can crack. … He’s had a couple of months, but he probably needs like six months before he’s even sparring again.
“He’s a very mentally strong guy, and I think he will bounce back in that regard. It’s just there’s also the reality of how much damage, and only he knows how much damage he actually took in that fight, how that affects him, as well, because there’s only a few of those kind of fights that you could have in your career, and you’ve got to be very careful how you recover from those.”
Rogan used UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski as an example of someone who made a costly quick turnaround in the past.
“A lot of fighters, a lot of great fighters have made a mistake of coming back too soon,” Rogan said. “Volkanovski is one that I point to all the time, who’s arguably the greatest featherweight of all time. He is one of the most masterful fighters in the game. He took a short, short-notice fight with Islam (Makhachev) in the rematch and got head-kicked, and then I think it was only four months later that he was fighting Ilia, and that is crazy. That’s a crazy thing to do. He took a full head kick, shin to the dome, gets KO’d, and then four months later he’s fighting the f*cking scariest challenger that he’s ever had to face.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joe Rogan expresses concern for ‘mistake’ Ilia Topuria could be making
