Ilia Topuria has been warned by one of the longest-standing voices in MMA to be careful what he wishes for calling out Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The UFC featherweight champion has named former lightweight king Nurmagomedov as his ultimate dream opponent. While it is common knowledge that the Russian would never return to the octagon, even the mention of such a fight has made headlines with UFC fans.

However, one of the founders of MMA; legendary referee John McCarthy, has let him know that the dominance of Nurmagomedov was unmatched by anyone currently competing. And he reckons that the matchup would not be a wise one for the Georgian-born Spaniard.

Ilia Topuria names Khabib Nurmagomedov as dream opponent

Earlier this year, Ilia Topuria named Khabib Nurmagomedov as his dream opponent if he could fight anyone in the sport. The pair are similar weights, but the Russian was considerably bigger, struggling at times to even make the lightweight limit.

It was around the time Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 that he made the comments during an interview. “My dream opponent?” He asked, before answering that “I would be happy to enter the octagon with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“He has an undefeated record at 29-0 and he has an attractive record for me. Then he also has history, he is a worthy and honorable champion for me.” When the host asked if he thinks he would actually win, Topuria replied: “100 per cent.”

Ilia Topuria warned against Khabib Nurmagomedov callout

While reading through current events on their show Weighing In, this comment that’s almost a year old just managed to find its way on to co-host Josh Thomson’s newsfeed. And John McCarthy was quick to express the unlikelihood of such a fight going Topuria’s way.

Thomson, a former world champion in Strikeforce, admitted his biases as a long-time friend and teammate of Nurmagomedov’s but the more objective McCarthy explained: “Look, Ilia Topuria is so good.

“But what he thinks would happen in the standup is not quite what would happen and what he thinks would happen on the ground is definitely not what would happen.

“When you are a guy who has got good jiu-jitsu, decent wrestling, a good ground game, Khabib proved that his wrestling for MMA was better than everybody’s! Everyone knew what he was going to do and they could not stop it, nobody.

“That right there tells you how f***ing dominant he was in that area. They know exactly what you’re going to do and they still can’t stop it? OK. I think Ilia is a fantastic fighter, but the other thing is he’s not near as big as Khabib.

“Take a look at just the amount of control that he’s able to put. Topuria would be taken down and systematically the fight would fall down in terms of his chances at winning it from the shots he’s going to end up taking to the amount of output in trying to defend himself and do something back.”