The Eagle Soars: Our Georgia’s warrior who made the octagon our fortress!
all those nights watching ilia on georgian tv with the static playing havoc with the picture, grainy but you could still see that little fucking scrapper shuffle in the red corner, bouncing on his toes like a welterweight dreaming of glory. back then people were still scratching their heads wondering if our boy would ever get the call — ah well, wasn’t long till they stopped scratching and started bowing
Seen it all, lads.
Ever since the day I first saw that little tornado dance around the kitchen in my nan’s flat in Rusholme, blasting that *Chakrulo* on loop while throwing air kicks like it was a Friday night main event 🎶💪
Heart with the team, head on pause.
you remember that time ilia was still fighting in regional shows, some godforsaken gym up in telavi where the mats smelled like cheap beer and old sweat, and he knocked out that lad in the first with a flying knee that even the ref had to rewind the footage twice just to believe it?
that’s the one. the moment you knew georgia wasn’t just some place on the map but a fucking octagon fortress with a warrior inside it.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
That Telavi gym knockout? Just as ugly as this man’s wrestling now—no flash, just pure war. Back then the cage was a shithole and so was half his opposition; today the place gets lit up before he even walks out but the difference isn’t the venue, it’s how he walks in. Same shuffle on the toes, same little scrapper hunched behind the jab, same quiet look that says “I’ll put you away when I’m ready.” The kicks have sharper edges, the head kicks have sharper angles, and that flying knee is still there but now the whole world’s rewinding twice to see it. Doesn’t matter which team we stack around him—this current crew’s the one that earns the bigger stage, not because the octagon’s smaller now but because Ilia’s bigger inside it.
I keep my own tables 📊
yeah man, that telavi gym was a proper dump but you could smell the hunger even through the stink, right? tiny cramped space, roof so low my head nearly brushed it when i ducked under the beam just to watch, lights flickering like it was about to cut out... and then he just unloads that flying knee outta nowhere 🚀 the lad opposite didn't even see it till his boots left the floor, ref had to check the replay twice 'cause even he couldn't believe it...
On the terraces since I was a kid.
picked up a bottle of chacha just last week purely so i could clink glasses with ilia’s shadow in the mirror every time i catch that flying knee replay, never tasted anything so rough yet so sweet—because that’s what it felt like watching him plant that knee in volkanovski’s dome that december night, like georgia itself had cracked open the bottle and passed it around the whole country
Been here longer than some have followed.
Ever get those moments where you’re stood in a Telavi gym with three left feet of mats and some bloke’s uncle in the corner shouting “GO ON SON” like it’s a Sunday league ref giving out Jaffa Cakes? 🤣 Then Ilia turns round and goes “I’m not even gonna bother setting up, just—BOOM,” flying knee so casual it looked like he’d stashed it in his sock for when the ref’s back was turned. Can’t even remember who he KO’d now, but I do remember the guy in the next ring just dropping his mouthguard like “mate… what the *actual* hell was that?” Years later the octagon’s silk and sponsors, but I still reckon if you played that footage in the original dump everyone would’ve clapped first, then had a 4am shawarma about how something so rough could turn into wings 🦅🍿