Ilia Topuria Explains Hilarious Reason He Was Never a Fan of Demetrious Johnson

Fighters are known for their fierce competitive spirit, but sometimes a beef starts over something as simple as a childhood cartoon character. UFC star Ilia Topuria recently shared a hilarious reason why he was never able to fully buy into the legacy of mixed martial arts legend Demetrious Johnson during his prime.

Appearing on a podcast episode,  Topuria admitted that despite recognizing Johnson's incredible technical dominance and his historic run of 11 successful title defenses in the flyweight division, one major obstacle always stood in the way of his fandom: The iconic moniker "Mighty Mouse".

Ilia Topuria's big misunderstanding

"I never was a big fan of him," Topuria explained. "First of all, when you call yourself a Mickey Mouse... I always thought that he was a Mickey Mouse. I'm like, 'Bro, why the f--k are you calling yourself the Mickey Mouse?'"

While podcast host Joe Rogan showered the former champion with high praise, highlighting Johnson's legendary status and skill set, Topuria couldn't look past the animated comparison, casually mixing up the cartoon rodent name much to the amusement of fans online.

Rogan couldn't help but laugh when the Spaniard mistook the nickname for a Disney character, and immediately corrected him saying it's Mighty Mouse not Mickey Mouse. 

Johnson, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists to ever step foot inside the Octagon before putting together a stellar run in ONE Championship, caught wind of the playful disrespect. True to form, "Mighty Mouse" fired back with a cool three-word response ("All Gucci boiiss") before later joking about wanting to welcome Topuria into a training clinch to test his skills.

Whether Topuria plans to trade jokes or punches with the flyweight great down the road, it is safe to say "El Matador" prefers his fighting monikers a bit further away from Disney.