Ilia Topuria is set to headline International Fight Week when he fights for the vacant lightweight title.
The main event of UFC 317 is now official with Dana White announcing that Topuria will face Charles Oliveira on June 28.
Though the fight that a lot of fans wanted to see was ‘El Matador’ vs Islam Makhachev, the former lightweight champion has vacated the belt to move up to welterweight.
Topuria has already posted his reaction to the news that he will now be facing ‘Do Bronx’ who is another one of the UFC’s most dangerous finishers.
Though a lot of the narrative around this matchup will be about the power of the former featherweight champion, it can’t be forgotten that the undefeated Spanish star is also a ruthless submission artist.
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Ilia Topuria was known as a submission specialist before he arrived in the UFC
Since he arrived in the UFC, Ilia Topuria has earned the reputation of being one of the most devastating knockout artists in the sport today.
‘El Matador’ has won five of his eight fights inside the Octagon via strikes, including back-to-back knockouts over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
Charles Oliveira has been stopped in this manner on four occasions so the power that Topuria brings to the table is going to be a massive factor in this fight.
However, before the Spanish star arrived in the UFC, his grappling game was far more feared than his boxing.
Topuria had just one knockout win when he made his Octagon debut back in 2020 and even that had come in the fight before he signed to the promotion.
His seven previous pro wins had all come by submission with six of them happening in the very first round.
With a mix of rear-naked chokes, triangles, armbars, guillotines, and anaconda chokes, Topuria was putting his opponents away with ease once the fight hit the floor.
His UFC bout with Bryce Mitchell did give fans a look at what he could do in the grappling exchanges, but we might not have seen the full extent of his skillset at this moment in time.
Charles Oliveira has the most submissions in UFC history but he has been subbed in the past
Charles Oliveira holds the record for the most submissions in UFC history at 16, not to mention the most finishes overall at 20.
He has tapped quality opposition like Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje but that doesn’t mean that opponents haven’t gotten the better of him on the ground in the past.
Along with the likes of Ricardo Lamas and Anthony Pettis, Islam Makhachev was the latest man to submit ‘Do Bronx’ when he caught him with an arm-triangle choke after dropping him at UFC 280.
If Ilia Topuria is able to do some damage with his hands, he won’t hesitate to try and submit Oliveira even if the Brazilian’s ground game is incredibly well respected.