Ilia Topuria was defeated by Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC Casa Branca . Photo: UFC Europe / X
Josh Hokit abandoned his provocative tone and presented a rather curious theory to explain Ilia Topuria 's defeat at UFC Casa Branca , held on June 14th. On that occasion, the Spaniard faced Justin Gaethje in the main event and was forced to submit after suffering significant damage. In the outspoken fighter's view, the result may have been a consequence of a miscalculation in training.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Hokit assessed that Topuria had adopted an excessively aggressive posture during training sessions, which ended up intimidating his own teammates. According to him, this behavior hinders technical development, since teammates begin to avoid more intense confrontations for fear of being injured.
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“Topuria makes the mistake of beating up his teammates, and so now his teammates fear him. That’s Topuria’s downfall. If you’re always hitting people in the liver, you’re always knocking down your teammates, and your teammates kind of cower. They’re afraid to hit you because, rightfully so, nobody wants to get knocked down in practice,” said Josh Hokit.
Therefore, Josh Hokit believes that Topuria was not properly tested, compromising important aspects such as distance and timing inside the octagon.
"You need a healthy balance in training where the guy is still trying to test you, so you can practice your defense. I think that's why your distance and timing were wrong, because of that," the loudmouth concluded.
Ilia Topuria had her face transformed at UFC Casa Branca.
Topuria was punished by Gaethje in the UFC. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram/UFC
After a balanced first round, Ilia Topuria returned for the second determined to justify his five-to-one odds against Justin Gaethje at UFC Casa Branca . Despite landing some good strikes and coming close to finishing the fight, the American held on, and the Spaniard returned for the third round already showing clear signs of fatigue.
With Topuria slowing down, Gaethje began to find his range with precise jabs and even managed to stagger the former champion with a powerful straight punch. Gradually, the Spaniard's face became deformed from the accumulated damage, until, in the break between the fourth and fifth rounds, his team opted to stop the fight.
After the fight, it was confirmed that Topuria suffered fractures to the orbital bones of her face and to her nose.
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