Undefeated former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria returns to the light-weight division on June 28 within the UFC 317 foremost occasion in opposition to former 155-pound champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant light-weight title.
Topuria relinquished the 145-pound championship to maneuver up a weight class in an effort to affix the two-division UFC champion membership. He’ll enter the struggle coming off back-to-back knockout wins over two of the best featherweights to ever grace the octagon: Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
Former light-weight champion Islam Makhachev had the identical aspirations of turning into a two-division UFC champion as Topuria. The 155-pound championship is vacant as a result of Makhachev moved as much as the welterweight division and is predicted to confronted champion Jack Della Maddalena later this yr.
Oliveira is coming off a unanimous determination win over Michael Chandler in his final struggle at UFC 309 final November. The Brazilian holds the report for essentially the most submission wins in UFC historical past, however Topuria believes he has the sting over “Do Bronx” if the struggle hits the bottom.
“To be sincere, I really feel I’ve the benefit within the grappling recreation additionally. I really feel and I do know that I am higher than him even within the floor recreation,” Topuria stated throughout a UFC 317 media scrum on Friday.
“We’ll see how the struggle goes, but when I’ve to submit him, I’ve all the talents to do this additionally. We’ll see.”
Ilia Topuria Predicts a First-Spherical End Over Charles Oliveira at UFC 317
Ilia Topuria expects to complete former light-weight champion Charles Oliveira within the first spherical after they meet within the octagon within the UFC 317 foremost occasion.
“I can knock him out. I can submit him. No matter. The one factor I do know for certain is I will knock him out within the first spherical, or summit him within the first spherical as a result of he walks ahead,” Topuria stated. “I am not going to want to shut the gap with him. Because the first second, we will discover one another within the heart of the octagon. It is going to be first-round end.”
