Following his dramatic third-round finish of Max Holloway at UFC 308, Ilia ‘El Matador’ Topuria has not only cemented himself as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the roster but also one of the biggest superstars in the entire sport.
With back-to-back knockouts over Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski, there’s a strong argument that ‘El Matador’ has now surpassed the dominant light heavyweight champion as the front-runner for the 2024 Fighter of the Year award.
2024 Fighter of the Year: LHW king Alex Pereira or FW superstar Ilia Topuria?
There are still two months of UFC action to look forward to this year, but the race to be crowned the 2024 ‘Fighter of the Year’ now has just two runners – light heavyweight powerhouse Alex Pereira, and featherweight superstar Ilia Topuria.
Pereira has scored three knockouts this year; those coming against Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and Khalil Rountree Jr, whereas Topuria has finished the consensus two greatest featherweights of all time in Holloway and Volkanovski.
The debate over who ‘deserves’ the 2024 Fighter of the Year award is a tough one to call, with UFC CEO Dana White admitting that he’s now on the fence following Topuria’s third-round KO last night.
“Yeah, that’s a good question, I don’t know, that’s a tough one… I’d have to look at the numbers and stats, but you know, you can’t take it away from either one of them for what they’ve done this year.
“I mean Alex, he’s on vacation in Australia, we call him, he packs up and heads home to the fight; he’s just built different that guy. He doesn’t care about a full camp, or being hurt, he’ll get in there and fight.”
Whilst White might be on the fence, former double champion Daniel Cormier certainly isn’t as he made the argument on the UFC 308 broadcast that there isn’t even a debate to be had.
“Honestly, I think it [UFC 308] ends the conversation, in my opinion… I get that Alex has done some tremendous things but that victory, either one of those victories are bigger than any of Alex’s victories this year.
“He knocked out Max and Volk in one year… It would be like Alex fighting me and Jon Jones in the same year and [him] knocking both of us out.”
Unsurprisingly, Topuria would also be asked about the FOTY debate after last night’s viral win, but contrary to his typical self-confident demeanor, he’s staying out of the discussion entirely.
“Let’s leave that pick to the fans or to the people involved in that election… If they want me to be the Fighter of the Year, I’ll be very, very happy, but I don’t know – Alex Pereira is there, I’m right there so let’s let the fans decide.”
Whilst there will be a significant amount of recency bias involved, it appears that the majority of fans and fighters are siding with the Spanish-Georgian superstar over the Brazilian.
What do you think; has Ilia Topuria now beaten out Alex Pereira as the 2024 Fighter of the Year?