Ilia Topuria is one of the biggest stars in the sport, and ahead of his huge title fight at UFC 317, he has continued to exude his sparkling confidence.
On Saturday night, International Fight Week 2025 culminates with the huge UFC 317 event headlined by a vacant lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira.
‘El Matador’ is widely regarded as one of the sport’s biggest stars and one of the reasons for that is because of his palpable confidence.
And ahead of his clash against ‘Do Bronx’ on Saturday, Topuria has claimed that Oliveira made a huge mistake by promising his children that he will win the title in Las Vegas.
Ilia Topuria and team celebrate UFC 317 victory hours before huge clash
Before the Spaniard’s UFC featherweight title fight against Alexander Volkanovski, he prematurely changed his bio on social media to ‘UFC featherweight champion’, in an attempt to speak his words into existence.
Of course, he managed to do just that when he knocked Volkanovski out cold before going on to do the exact same thing to Max Holloway later in the year.
And just a day before his huge clash against the former lightweight champion, Topuria has once again shown his incredible confidence with a controversial video online.
In the video, the 28-year-old is seen standing on a chair celebrating as his whole team sings and cheers his name from below.
Topuria captioned the video, ‘Thanks for celebrating the victory with me’, suggesting that he and his team are already celebrating his lightweight title win.
Ilia Topuria names most likely contender he will fight if he becomes lightweight champion
With Topuria already seeing himself as the 155lb champion, there are several contenders waiting in line to fight either him or Oliveira next for the title.
Ahead of their clash, Arman Tsarukyan weighed in as the back-up in an attempt to secure himself the next title shot.
However, the Armenian is unlikely to be picked next and Topuria has instead highlighted Justin Gaethje as the ‘deserving’ next title challenger.
Despite that, the next title challenger rides on whoever wins the UFC 317 main event, with it being unlikely that Gaethje will fight for the title next if the Brazilian makes UFC history by becoming the first two-time UFC lightweight champion.