Former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria stole the present at UFC 317 knocking out Charles Oliveira within the first spherical.
Topuria relinquished the 145-pound championship to maneuver as much as the 155-pound weight class with plans of changing into a two-division UFC titleholder. His plans got here to fruition.
Topuria confronted former light-weight champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant light-weight title within the UFC 317 important occasion this previous Saturday and logged one other knockout win over a legend. Heading into the UFC 317 title combat, Topuria was coming off knockout wins over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
Contemplating Topuria’s final three performances, former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley believes Topuria has solidified himself as one of many greats.
“He is up there with Jon Jones. Knocked out Volk. Knocked out Max. Knocked out Charles,” O’Malley stated on his YouTube channel. “F**king knocking out Volk, knocking out Holloway then knocking out Charles is f**king insane. Ilia is a f**king famous person.”
“Ilia’s simply that f**king good. He landed a clear proper hand. The suitable hand knocked him out. The left hook simply made it f**king worse. Holy sh*t. That was loopy,” continued O’Malley. “Charles will get hit in a number of his fights. That was simply Ilia being that f**king good. That was f**king insane. Simply sat on a proper hand, left hook.”
Associated: Ilia Topura vs. Charles Oliveira full UFC 317 combat video
Topuria made his skilled combined martial arts debut in April 2015 and reeled off seven consecutive submission wins to start out his profession. 4 of his subsequent 5 fights led to knockouts. His final three fights have been knockout wins over champions or former titleholders.
The 28 year-old Topuria indicated that he’d be prepared to combat once more this yr in the course of the UFC 317 Publish-Struggle Press Convention and has an opponent in thoughts. “El Matador” needs to face Paddy Pimblett subsequent. O’Malley believes a combat between Pimblett and Topuria is the most important light-weight bout the combat promotion could make.
