According to one of Ilia Topuria’s biggest rivals in the UFC, he has already surpassed Jon Jones as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever.
Ever since his emergence in the UFC in 2020, it became clear that Ilia Topuria could go on to become one of the biggest stars in the sport.
Not long after, he made a step closer to that when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 to become the featherweight champion, remaining undefeated.
And then earlier this year, he became arguably the biggest star in combat sports when he knocked out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 to become the new lightweight champion.
Topuria backed as the greatest fighter ever over Jon Jones by Sean O’Malley
Over his tenure in the promotion, ‘El Matador’ has become one of the most confident fighters on the roster, backing himself to beat anyone, and he has even started a feud with boxing champion Terence Crawford.
And at one point, it seemed inevitable that the Spaniard would end up fighting former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley when he reigned over the 135lb division and was considering moving up to featherweight.
Even after losing his title to Merab Dvalishvili, O’Malley vowed to climb the ladder and secure a super fight against Topuria.
However, despite their longtime feud, ‘Suga’ has recently been full of praise for the lightweight champion, claiming that he is already the greatest fighter of all time, overtaking Jon Jones.
“Ilia is pound-for-pound the greatest fighter to ever walk this earth. The greatest fighter pound-for-pound, ever,” O’Malley said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Yeah, even over Jon Jones I think. Dude, his last three fights, KO’s Volkanovski, KO’s Max Holloway, KO’s Charles Oliveira. He’s not beating guys by decision, he’s not taking them down and holding them down and these guys can’t get up, he’s knocking them out. It’s f—— sweet,” O’Malley continued.
Could Topuria go down as the greatest fighter of all time?
Despite O’Malley’s praise of the 28-year-old coming as a huge surprise, he put together a good argument for Topuria being the greatest fighter ever.
However, the Spaniard still has some ways to go before he can be considered the greatest ever and he is still in the early prime of his career with several fights still ahead.
Fans continue to call for a fight between Topuria and former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, and if ‘El Matador’ could score a win in that potential clash, he would inevitably find himself top of many people’s lists.