{"id":38831,"date":"2026-06-16T18:46:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Longtime-UFC-veteran-encourages-Ilia-Topuria-to-make-quick-return-201547"},"modified":"2026-06-16T18:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:46:39","slug":"longtime-ufc-veteran-encourages-ilia-topuria-to-make-quick-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/longtime-ufc-veteran-encourages-ilia-topuria-to-make-quick-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime UFC veteran encourages Ilia Topuria to make quick return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Anthony
\nSmith<\/a> believes Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> should return quickly to recover from the loss against
\nJustin
\nGaethje<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Topuria (17-1) put his lightweight title on the line against
\nGaethje (28-5) in the main event at
\nUFC White House<\/a> on Sunday. While Topuria was a massive
\nfavorite, Gaethje bloodied up \u201cEl Matador\u201d in the first round.
\nTopuria briefly rebounded in the second round but apparently
\nexhausted himself hunting a finish. Gaethje unleashed brutal
\npunishment in the third round. However, Topuria showed immense
\nheart in getting off the stool for the fourth round, where he
\nabsorbed even more damage. Topuria\u2019s corner had seen enough to
\nthrow in the towel at the end of the fourth round. Gaethje shocked
\nthe world by winning the undisputed title in his third attempt in
\none of the greatest upsets in UFC history. <\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Smith believes the best way for Topuria to mentally recover from
\nhis first career loss is to return to competition as soon as he
\ncan. According to Smith, sitting on the loss for too long will take
\na toll on Topuria. The former UFC light heavyweight also notes that
\nTopuria really went big with his trash talk in the lead-up to the
\nfight. The previously undefeated Georgian-Spaniard had repeatedly
\npredicted a first-round knockout. Topuria also threw a party
\ncelebrating his expected victory before the fight. \u201cLionheart\u201d
\nbelieves Topuria will be eating his words for a while now.<\/p>\n

It Will Mess with You<\/h2>\n

\u201cI’d like to see him at the end of the year,\u201d Smith said on \u201cThe
\nAriel Helwani Show.\u201d \u201cYou don’t want to sit on that too long
\nbecause it’ll f\u2014k with you. It’ll mess with how you feel about
\nyourself, especially when you’re the level of superstar that he is.
\nAnd the attention that he has. He\u2019s gonna be eating on that for a
\nwhile, especially with the s\u2014t that he says. I mean, he had a
\ncelebratory dinner beforehand, and people were practically holding
\na funeral for Gaethje before the fight. You’re going to have to eat
\nthat s\u2014t for a minute. The quicker you can get back, be healthy,
\nand try to get that monkey off your back, the better.\u201d

<\/p>\n
\n

Anthony
\nSmith<\/a> explains why he believes Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a> should return as soon as possible:<\/p>\n

“I’d like to see him back at the end of the year. You don’t want to
\nsit on that too long because it’ll fuck with you.<\/p>\n

It’ll mess with how you feel about yourself, especially when you’re
\nthe\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/eRWqYoO2di<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
\nJune 15, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Smith believes Ilia Topuria should return quickly to recover from the loss against Justin Gaethje.  Topuria (17-1) put his lightweight title on the line against Gaethje (28-5) in the main event at UFC White House on Sunday. While Topuria was a massive favorite, Gaethje bloodied up \u201cEl Matador\u201d in the first round. Topuria briefly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}