Ilia Topuria is seen as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
It’s getting extremely hard to doubt the newly-crowned UFC Lightweight Champion on this current run. In his last three fights, Topuria has knocked out current titleholders Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway at featherweight and former champ Charles Oliveira at lightweight.
Topuria is said to have a ‘greater’ run than his predecessor Conor McGregor after capturing his second world title in the main event of UFC 317 with a deafening KO of Oliveira.
Currently ranked #3 in the pound-for-pound rankings as of Monday, Topuria isn’t that far from taking Islam Makhachev’s throne in the #1 spot.
Topuria might not have the number next to his name right now, but ‘El Matador’ is already #1 in the eyes of a former pound-for-pound king.
- READ MORE: Paddy Pimblett sparked bitter Ilia Topuria rivalry with controversial dig that ‘made his blood boil’
Kamaru Usman awards Ilia Topuria pound-for-pound status
A few days removed from Topuria’s seventeenth-straight victory over Oliveira, Kamaru Usman, one of the greatest welterweight champions of all time, has come to the conclusion Topuria is the best fighter in the world today.
“I give Ilia Topuria pound-for-pound,” Usman said on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.
“I’ve been pondering that all since I saw that fight.
“We had a similar situation like this when Alex Pereira was doing what he was doing. But there’s a difference here. Alex Pereira wasn’t doing that against necessarily the caliber Ilia’s doing that against.
“Not just necessarily doing that, not just the caliber, but everything he’s putting into this fight. I mean, Ilia Topuria dominated Charles Oliveira in every facet of the game,” Usman continued.
“Charles went to his wheelhouse. He went to the ground. Ilia Topuria passed his guard and crucified him…
“Who has shown all the skill sets, all the facets of the game, as well as he has and still put them away with his hands, mano y mano [both hands], putting them away?” said Usman.
Ilia Topuria has ‘three-headed race’ after UFC 317
We didn’t get any answers as to who’s next in line for Ilia Topuria at UFC 317.
9-1 in his last 10 fights and coming off wins over Oliveira and Beneil Dariush, #1 contender Arman Tsarukyan has a pretty solid case for a title shot against Topuria.
The same could be said for the #3-ranked Justin Gaethje, as the former interim champion defeated top contender Rafael Fiziev for a second time at UFC 313 and knocked out Dustin Poirier to win the BMF title in 2023.
Of course, there’s the #8-ranked Paddy Pimblett as well, who faced off with Topuria inside the Octagon at UFC 317. Undefeated in the UFC, Pimblett TKO’ed former Bellator champion Michael Chandler at UFC 314 in April.
“It’s a three-headed race between those guys,” former UFC champion Aljamain Sterling said of Topuria’s next opponent on his YouTube channel.
Who will Ilia Topuria fight next?