MMA
Current UFC Featherweight Champion: Who’s on Top?
Ilia Topuria has proven himself as a formidable UFC Featherweight Champion with dominant wins over legends like Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski.
Ilia Topuria//Getty Images
At the most recent UFC pay-per-view, UFC 308, Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway clashed in the main event for the featherweight championship. Topuria, the champion, successfully defended his belt by being the first man to not just knock down Holloway, but he knocked him out cold, once more displaying his excellent boxing skills and devastating power in both hands.
He first captured the title in February 2024 after stopping Alex Volkanovski, and two back-to-back wins over all-time greats has now got MMA fans raving about Topuria's potential to be an all-time great in the 145-pound division himself.
With Ilia Topuria having dual citizenship (Georgia and Spain), he is the first Georgian and first Spanish fighter to win a title in the UFC.
Ilia Topuria's Fighting Style and Background
Ilia Topuria//Getty Images
Born in Germany, but moving to Georgia at the age of seven, Topuria began learning Greco-Roman wrestling, which is his base fighting style. At 15 years of age, he would relocate to Spain where he began learning more of a mixed martial arts skill set.
El Matador would soon make his professional MMA debut at 18 on the local circuit in Spain, where he would start his career with four straight submission wins. Eventually, Topuria would become the first Georgian fighter to earn a black belt in BJJ, alongside his older brother Alex. This only strengthened his confidence on the mat and he would win a further three matches by submission before making his UFC debut in 2020.
As things stand, Ilia Topuria is 16-0 and he doesn't look like slowing down at all, having easily dispatched of modern greats, Volkanovski and Holloway. But why is the fighter hailing from Georgia so effective?
On the feet, Topuria has devastating knockout power in both of his hands, and although he doesn't regularly use leg kicks, when he throws one, they have a ton of power behind them. This makes him tough to beat on the feet because he can beat the lead leg up to demobilise his opponent, and then he can plough forward and unleash his devastating boxing combinations, ripping to the body and head.
The champion has a Greco-Roman style of wrestling, which is great to have in his locker because not only can he powerfully get his opponents down to the ground, he can also work his boxing skills in the clinch, which we have seen him hurt numerous opponents with throughout his career.
If Topuria chooses to get the fight to the mat, he has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and he shows this with his large arsenal of submission attempts. Out of eight of his submission victories, he has used a different technique in six of them, further highlighting his elite ground game.
Can Anyone Challenge Ilia Topuria's Featherweight Throne?
It was only a couple of years ago where people were talking about Alex Volkanovski being one of the greatest fighters of all time, as he looked unbeatable at featherweight. Since then, he's been knocked out by Islam Makhachev at lightweight, and then he came back down to featherweight to defend his title against Topuria, where he would suffer another knockout defeat.
Topuria then followed up his title win by recently decimating Max Holloway's chin, a fighter who had never been dropped in his career.
It's difficult to pick anybody to beat the Georgian at this point in his career. Many people suggest Topuria is somewhat a Conor McGregor 2.0 in the sense that he predicts things pre-fight, and then backs it up in the octagon, very similar to how the Irishman made his name less than ten years ago.
There has been suggestions that Topuria should fight Conor McGregor next in a dream fight at Santiago Bernabeu, however, it's highly unlikely McGregor would be able to make the featherweight limit now. Perhaps this fight could happen at lightweight at some stage, but not right now.
The remaining featherweight fighters that can pose a threat to Topuria in our opinion are: Diego Lopes, Movsar Evloev and Arnold Allen.
Lopes, despite being the higher ranked fighter in the trio, is the one you'd feel less confident in, purely because he fights recklessly, which often pays off. But, you don't really want to get into an all-out war versus someone with Topuria's knockout power and boxing technique.
Evloev perhaps has the safer route to victory. The Russian fighter has a very wrestle-heavy approach to fights, and if he can tie the champion up early, he has a chance to sink in a submission without taking damage.
Allen has a chance to claim another UFC title for England. The Suffolk man can mix up his attacks as well as anybody in the UFC; he has good boxing, kickboxing and his grappling skills always seems to get better every fight. And, he is as tough as they come.
Jake Staniland is a sports writer who excels in covering a wide range of sports: football, combat sports and the NFL - All three subjects are his lifelong passions.
Jake is a boyhood Sheffield United fan, which is often a curse that he thanks his family for. His favourite Blades player ever is Billy Sharp