UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria has made a quick ascent from prospect to pound-for-pound great.
Topuria became the latest to secure two-division glory at Saturday’s UFC 317 pay-per-view, where he followed up a brief featherweight reign with an immediate crowning at UFC 317.
To achieve that feat, Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira in brutal fashion, making good on his fight week promise to render ‘Do Bronx’ unconscious in the very first round.
With that result coming after similar violent displays against Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, many are beginning to speak about Topuria as being among the greats of the game.
And that rise to prominence has been relatively sudden, with Topuria failing to crack the top 10 of a list detailing the top young UFC prospects just 13 months before his first title win.
Ilia Topuria was ranked 14th on UFC’s ‘best 30 under 30’ list in 2023
At the start of 2023, the UFC released a list of the 30 best fighters under the age of 30.
Topuria had dominated Bryce Mitchell a month before at UFC 310 to extend his perfect Octagon record to 5-0. A first ranked victory was only enough to secure ‘El Matador’ the No. 14 spot.
That position put Topuria behind a number of interesting selections, including heavyweight Tai Tuivasa at No. 10, middleweight Marvin Vettori at No. 8, and fellow UFC 317 title challenger Kai Kara-France at No. 6.
Higher up the list, meanwhile, were names who have since gone on to win gold on MMA’s biggest stage, including reigning heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and former bantamweight king Sean O’Malley.
Topuria has certainly made a mockery of his placement by surpassing just about every name above him and joining Islam Makhachev and Merab Dvalishvili in the race for the pound-for-pound crown.
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Ilia Topuria’s potential next opponent did not make the top 30
Soon after Topuria had the lightweight gold wrapped around his waist, a potential first challenger to his reign made his way into the cage.
Topuria faced off with Paddy Pimblett, a heated rival who’s gone back-and-forth with the Spaniard for years. While unconfirmed, it appears that the two are now on a collision course for later in 2025.
Like ‘El Matador’, Pimblett has risen through the ranks with an undefeated run in the UFC. But at the time of the UFC’s ‘best 30 under 30’ list, the Scouser hadn’t done enough to make the cut.
While the likes of Serghei Spivac, Casey O’Neill, and Mackenzie Dern filled some of the spots low down the list, Pimblett’s 4-0 start to life in the UFC clearly had not made enough of an impression.
But ‘The Baddy’ has since surpassed many of those on the list by making his way into the lightweight top 10 and the division’s title picture.