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Ilia Topuria confronts life after Justin Gaethje loss: 'I did not recognize the face staring back at me'

Ilia Topuria is finally picking up the pieces of what he left behind on the White House lawn. Nearly three months after Topuria’s shocking upset loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250, the former two-division champion penned a wide-ranging and deeply personal essay reflecting on both the experience and how it has changed him since. Topuria, 29, suffered a fourth-round corner stoppage loss — the first of his professional career — to forfiet the UFC lightweight title in the headlining bout of the June 14 event, which took place in a cage erected on the White House’s South Lawn.

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