Max Holloway recently shared some comforting words for Ilia Topuria after the reigning UFC lightweight champion explained why he won't be fighting in the first quarter of next year.Topuria's relationship status became a topic of discussion among MMA fans over the past couple of months, after his partner seemingly deleted all their pictures together from her social media handles. In a recent X post, Topuria opened up about going through a "difficult moment" in his life and wrote:"I won’t be fighting in the first quarter of next year. I’m going through a difficult moment in my personal life. I want to focus on my children and resolve this situation as soon as possible. I don’t want to hold up the division. The UFC will make the matchups needed, and as soon as the matters are resolved, I'll let the UFC know I'm ready to begin my return."Ilia Topuria @TopuriailiaLINKI won’t be fighting in the first quarter of next year. I’m going through a difficult moment in my personal life. I want to focus on my children and resolve this situation as soon as possible.I don’t want to hold up the division. The UFC will make the matchups needed, and as soon as the matters are resolved, I'll let the UFC know I'm ready to begin my return.Taking to the post's comments section, Holloway shared his sympathy for Topuria and wrote:"Sorry to hear, champ. If it’s what I’m hearing it is I know the struggle first hand trying to fight while protecting your kids. Hope all goes well."Topuria notably defeated Holloway via third-round knockout at UFC 308 last October in a featherweight title fight. Holloway bounced back from his loss with a statement BMF title win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 318 in July.Max Holloway discusses a potential Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett fightEarlier this month, Max Holloway spoke about a potential Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett matchup. The former featherweight champion admitted that Pimblett could get the better of Topuria despite lacking fighting experience.In an interview with Drake Riggs (via @RedCorner_MMA on X), Holloway got honest about Pimblett potentially becoming a UFC champion and said:"It's fighting, at the end of the day, anything can happen. Someone could go in there and land a clean shot, or they could go in there and slip... MMA is the most volatile sport. It's not black and white... There are ideas you can have, 'Hey, you don't do this against this guy, or you don't do that against this guy,' but things can go wrong in there because there are so many variables."He added:"MMA is a weird sport. Experience does come into play, but never count anybody out in this sport. We’ve seen some wild things happen, and I wouldn’t be surprised."