The patented Topuria confidence runs in the family as Ilia Topuria’s brother, Aleksandre Topuria, proudly declared he’d beat Topuria if they had to fight in the UFC.
Aleksandre Topuria makes his UFC debut this weekend at UFC 312, where he takes on undefeated Australian prospect Colby Thicknesse in a bantamweight contest. ‘El Conquistador’ is a considerable favorite coming into the matchup, a division below his champion brother.
This hasn’t prevented Aleksandre from letting Topuria know what he thinks would happen if they met in the Octagon.
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Aleksandre Topuria has ‘no doubt’ he’d beat Ilia Topuria in a cage fight
The Topuria brothers sat for a lie detector test in September 2024. One of the questions was whether Aleksandre thought he could beat his brother in a fight. He said yes, and it was detected as the truth.
“If you had to be my opponent someday, I would have no doubt that I would beat you,” Aleksandre remarked. “[…] I would beat you.”
The two brothers laughed, but the tension was thick. The lie detector operator declared Aleksandre was telling the truth, to which Topuria replied, “[I] expect you to have that mentality.”
Aleksandre Topuria’s career so far
Aleksandre is a 5-1 professional entering his UFC 312 fight. Unlike his brother, Aleksandre has tasted defeat, being TKO’d by still-undefeated Ivo Ivanov in 2015. Besides that one blemish, ‘El Conquistador’ has won all five fights by knockout or submission.
Most notably, Aleksandre took almost six years away from the sport after tasting his first defeat and hasn’t left the first round since, dispatching all three opponents by knockout. Where fans show concern, however, is the quality of Aleksandre’s opponent’s.
Aleksandre’s opponents have a combined record of 12-32, with one fighter making for seven of those victories. This doesn’t bode well, as he takes on Thicknesse, who cut his teeth on the Australian regional circuit against opponents with winning records.