The MMA world is still reeling from the fallout of the historic White House card, and new details are emerging that paint a brutal picture of just how badly Ilia Topuria was hurt during his war with Justin Gaethje. According to close friend Pablo Smerdos, who recently visited the fallen champion, Topuria suffered a broken nose and fractures to both eye sockets, leaving him barely able to open his eyes. Despite the devastating injuries, Smerdos revealed that Topuria looked at him with a defiant message: “Champions don’t fall quietly. When we fall, we fall loudly.” The undefeated star is already clamoring for revenge, talking about a rematch with Gaethje—but this time, he wants it in Spain.
The loss has sparked intense debate about what went wrong for Topuria, who many considered the most skilled fighter of the new generation. Joe Rogan went absolutely crazy on his podcast, calling the White House event “the greatest night of fights of all time” and revealing that Topuria literally quit on his stool in the fourth round after burning out his gas tank trying to finish Gaethje in the second. Rogan described how Topuria had real trouble seeing out of one eye after taking damage early, and when Gaethje started landing bombs in the third, the champion slowed down dramatically. “He looked like he had really tried to finish Justin in the second,” Rogan said. “And sometimes when you try to finish a guy, you just hit the gas way too much, and you can’t recover in between rounds.”
Justin Gaethje himself weighed in on Topuria’s collapse, and he didn’t hold back on why he thinks the former champion fell apart. According to Gaethje, Topuria’s biggest mistake wasn’t physical—it was his massive ego and expectations. “He was completely caught off guard, he was not expecting it,” Gaethje told Pat McAfee. “That obviously is another part of this whole game is the expectations. I’ve said it many times I don’t go in with expectations, so that way I can never be surprised.” Meanwhile, a fascinating secret behind Gaethje’s iron stomach has been revealed by UFC veteran Drew Dober, who claims Gaethje puts a standing bounty of $500 in cold hard cash on himself during training camps for any sparring partner who can drop him with a body shot. “I definitely have tried to earn that $500,” Dober admitted. “So, I know he can recover from that, and he did.”
In other major news from the White House fallout, Dana White has officially announced that Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight title against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 this August in Philadelphia. White dropped the news on the Pat McAfee Show, though he seemed far more excited about the UFC finally returning to Philly for the first time since 2019 than the actual fight. The co-main event is also a banger, with Mackenzie Dern facing Gillian Robertson for the strawweight title. Meanwhile, Alex Pereira has confirmed he will not appeal his controversial loss to Ciryl Gane, despite still being furious at referee Herb Dean. Pereira told Ariel Helwani that appealing doesn’t make sense and that he wants a clean, fair rematch in September, promising he always comes back 10 times stronger.
Alexander Volkanovski has weighed in on the Topuria-Gaethje saga, stating that he believes Ilia wins the rematch if he fixes his distance and doesn’t rush as much. “Being so aggressive is what sort of cost him, I believe,” Volkanovski said. Kamaru Usman also gave Topuria credit, arguing that Ilia walked into that cage with the perfect game plan and did everything he should have done, but Gaethje’s zombie-like durability was the ultimate X-factor. As the dust settles, the biggest question remains what Gaethje does next. Many are calling for him to walk away on top, having beaten the number one pound-for-pound fighter on the White House lawn with planes flying overhead—a spectacle that, as one commentator put it, is better than any script anyone could write.
