UFC 312 featured one of the most highly anticipated Octagon debuts in recent times.
What Ilia Topuria has been able to accomplish in the space of four years with the UFC has been nothing short of remarkable.
His undefeated run which led him to the featherweight title allowed his brother to follow suit in signing for the promotion despite the fact that he doesn’t have a particularly impressive record on paper.
Aleksandre Topuria, who is the older sibling, has a lot of expectations on his shoulders because he was signed based on Ilia’s accomplishments and seal of approval. The 29-year-old got off to a solid start in Sydney by winning all three rounds against Colby Thicknesse to earn his first win at bantamweight.
Josh Thomson questions whether Aleksandre Topuria will be able to overcome the comparisons
Aleksandre Topuria certainly got fight fans excited with his performance in the first round where he followed up hurting his opponent with an eye catching suplex to close out the opening stanza.
However, despite earning a 30-27 verdict across the board at UFC 312, ‘El Conquistador’ didn’t necessarily live up to expectations whether they were fair assessments or not.
Former UFC fighter turned analyst Josh Thomson spoke about this during a recent episode of his Weighing In podcast alongside ‘Big’ John McCarthy.
“He’s going to get compared a lot to his brother which is fair because they’re brothers obviously but the way his fighting style is, I don’t know if, I just want to know how it’s going to affect him, you understand what I’m saying?”
Thomson went into how Aleksandre implement a similar boxing style to what we have seen from ‘El Matador’ in his eight-fight run with the promotion.
His major concern is whether that means he’s always going to be overshadowed by his brother as fans start to expect the same level of success from the recent addition to the roster.
“I hope he’s got thick skin because the comparison’s gonna happen soon, if it already hasn’t by the time this media thing gets out tomorrow and I’m here comparing them in terms of their fighting style looks but their fighting style is not the same.
“It looks similar but they’re different fighters. Different fighters but that’s a good thing, it’s just a matter of can he separate himself.”
There are still a lot of positives for Aleksandre Topuria
Aleksandre Topuria may not have immediately announced himself as a top contender in the bantamweight division but he still checked a lot of boxes with his performance on February 8.
He showed that as Thicknesse started to have a bit more success in the striking, he took the fight to the floor in order to seal the victory and he remained patient even when having his opponent hurt. This was also a UFC debut against a late notice replacement after not fighting since May of 2023.
Ilia Topuria also went to the scorecards on his UFC debut, beating Youssef Zalal via a unanimous decision in 2020, so this is hardly a momentum killer for Aleksandre who still has a lot of time to establish himself at 135-pounds.