Before Ilia Topuria was booked to fight Charles Oliveira, the Spaniard detailed the key difference between him and the former lightweight champion.
This past Tuesday, UFC boss Dana White made a huge announcement when he revealed that Islam Makhachev has vacated the lightweight title in pursuit of a welterweight title fight against Jack Della Maddalena.
And with that, White announced that Ilia Topuria will take on Charles Oliveira for the vacant title in the UFC 317 main event to conclude International Fight Week.
Not long after the announcement, Topuria broke his silence and accused Makhachev of ‘running away’ from a super fight against him.
Ilia Topuria mocked Charles Oliveira’s record months before UFC 317 fight booking
Topuria and Oliveira have been exchanging words online for a few months now, as Makhachev has made it clear that he didn’t want to fight ‘El Matador’.
Topuria went on to slam ‘Do Bronx’, pulling up his record and bringing up the fact that he has losses against the likes of Cub Swanson.
Whilst talks were continuing to surface regarding a fight between ‘El Matador’ and Oliveira, Topuria explained the huge key difference between him and the Brazilian.
“Charles Oliveira – this is what I was telling you before, when you have 10 losses on your record, that’s not one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that’s 10. When you walk in (to a fight) with a guy that has 10 losses the level of confidence is completely different,” Topuria explained to Joe Rogan during an episode of his podcast.
“It’s completely different than when you walk in (to a fight) with a guy that’s undefeated. He’s a dangerous guy… He’s a dangerous guy, he’s never tasted a loss, that’s a different mentality, you’re gonna have to kill him to make him give up.
“In the case of Charles, if he finds some adversity, he’s gonna go to the ground and he’s gonna sit and he’s gonna wait until the ref ends the fight,” Topuria continued.
Joe Rogan warned Topuria about the danger of Oliveira
Despite the Spaniard’s confidence that he has a different mentality to Oliveira because of his undefeated record, Rogan attempted to warn him about the danger of the ‘tall’ Brazilian.
Although Oliveira has suffered 10 losses throughout his career, he has one of the most inspirational stories in the sport, having climbed his way from the bottom after being on the verge of being released from the UFC.
And with a win over Topuria, the 36-year-old could become the first fighter in UFC history to win the lightweight title twice.