Aleksandre Topuria reveals “the pressure” of being Ilia Topuria’s brother.

The current UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuia’s elder brother Aleksandre Topuria reveals the intensity of working with his younger sibling ahead of his fight against Colby Thicknesse at UFC 312 Prelims.

The Topuria hermanos are currently the most renowned siblings in the UFC. In 2018, both Ilia and his brother Alex became black belts in Jiu-Jitsu, and since then, both have been providing each other with crucial familial also professional support to achieve greatness in mixed martial arts. 

Ilia Topuria has already conquered the ultimate price in the UFC, and now his elder brother Alex Topuria is also on the way to leaving his mark on the promotion. He is also a part of Ilia’s massive coaching team and plays a vital role in optimizing El Matador’s technique for better performance inside the octagon.

Due to his younger brother becoming one of the biggest stars in the combat sports world, The El Conquistador is frequently asked whether he feels overshadowed or pressured by Ilia’s success, which he said –

“Listen, I don’t feel any pressure like a fighter. You know where I feel pressure? I feel pressure when I have to stay with him (Ilia Topuria) and show him the correct things he has to do inside the cage. It’s not like that also, he knows what to do, but when you’re in the position like a head coach, because he wanted me in this position all the time. I also want him in this position when I fight. So, right now he has more fights than me and I have experience coaching a fighter who has fought for a world championship.” – Alex said during an interview with CBS Sports’ Shakeil Mahjouri.

Despite starting his UFC career lately, Alex is not feeling any unnecessary pressure as an elder brother of a world champion. On the other hand, he believes Ilia has to feel a lot of pressure because he will leave behind all of his coaching responsibilities and fight for real this time.

“He has defended his belt against Max Holloway, and let’s not forget he also fought guys like Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell. Every time he fought them, he was undefeated, very dangerous, so there was a lot of responsibility (as coach). I feel pressure in that moment. Right now, he is feeling all the pressure, I have to just get inside the cage and enjoy fighting. He is my little brother! Also world champion! Whenever he’s with me I don’t feel any pressure, I feel strong.” – Alex added. 

Aleksander Topuria had other plans before joining the UFC. 

Aleksander Topuria shared an example of a healthy sibling bond by putting his professional MMA career on hold to help his brother Ilia Topuria fight former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski for the belt. He had fights booked outside the UFC but decided not to participate in them. 

Alex revealed without any hesitation that Ilia has pushed for him to fight inside the UFC. He was also willing to fight because he wanted to compete against the best guys in the world and test how good he has become. 

“Actually my plans were very different, I didn’t want to fight directly with the UFC. I actually had a fight outside the UFC, they booked me a fight. Then my brother gets a call to fight Volkanovski. All these time I was coaching my brother, so I couldn’t let myself to get selfish and fight for myself and my brother was fighting for the belt. After that (Ilia winning the championship).”

“I had many plans outside the UFC, and Ilia my brother became the champion and he saw what I did for him, so he says now I will push for him. That’s the truth, I don’t lie.” – Alex said during an interview with CBS Sports’ Shakeil Mahjouri.

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