Ilia Topuria has become one of the biggest stars in the UFC following his remarkable rise to become a two-time UFC champion.
At UFC 317, ‘El Matador’ achieved success in a second weight class by winning the vacant lightweight title after vacating his featherweight belt.
Topuria’s knockout over Charles Oliveira has led to fans questioning whether his recent run is the best in UFC history.
Topuria is now ranked as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, but some believe that he may already be in the conversation as one of the all-time greats.
His performance on Saturday night even caught the attention of the biggest star in the history of the sport, with Conor McGregor sharing his thoughts on Topuria’s win.
Eddie Alvarez ranks Ilia Topuria one spot higher than Conor McGregor on list of UFC’s two-division champions
In a recent video with MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was tasked with ranking the 10 fighters who have held titles in multiple weight classes.
Alvarez lost his 155-pound belt at UFC 205 where he was stopped by Conor McGregor with the Irishman making history as the first ever simultaneous two-weight champion.
Despite this, and his remarkable performances to win both of his belts, Alvarez doesn’t believe that his former opponent has longevity on his side, meaning that he ranked him at #8 on the list.
“For me, I’m so time biased. To do great things, you’ve got to do them for a while. That’s real greatness and that’s a big part of my criteria… To me, that’s the true mark.”
In his very next selection, Alvarez had Ilia Topuria one spot above McGregor at #7.
Despite being a big fan of ‘El Matador’, and recognizing the spectacular run that he has been on, the former UFC champion also couldn’t put Topuria any higher because we don’t know whether he will be able to maintain this success in the years to come.
“The list of guys he’s beaten, I mean these are all-time greats he’s beaten in a row but I just want to see more. I want to see a longer length of time, that’s all. I just want to see a few more years of being great and then we can mark him. He’s just so hard to mark right now, he’s just so brand new. I think some people, they’ll say number one because he just fought three days ago.”
Eddie Alvarez ranks Jon Jones as the top UFC two-division champion
Taking the top spot on Eddie Alvarez’s list for the greatest UFC two-division champions was the man that many consider to be the GOAT, Jon Jones.
While some would argue that Jones’ run at heavyweight was underwhelming, longevity was a massively important criterion for ‘The Underground King’ when he put his list together.
As the youngest UFC champion of all time, who never lost a title by being beaten inside the Octagon, it’s hard to argue against ‘Bones’ in this specific area.
Alvarez said that he’s able to put all of the controversies that have surrounded Jones to one side when recognizing his unmatched accomplishments.
“Regardless of how him and me align as human beings, it doesn’t matter. If you’re great, you’re great… Kind of like Ilia, to do what he’s done against the greatest, to dispatch them the way he’s done and for the period of time he’s done it for, I think it’s not even to be argued.”