Issue 209
September 2024
E. Spencer Kyte delves into why Topuria remains an enigma—and why his mystery might be what makes him so captivating.
Getting to the top of a mountain is difficult, but there’s a reason no one stays on the summit. Sure, they take pictures, soak in the scene, and let the weight of the accomplishment take root, but then, they work their way down the mountain. Surviving at the top is a daunting task few want to tackle. The mountain metaphor is a sporting mainstay. Maybe it will take several attempts to navigate the terrain. Perhaps you’ll get maddeningly close to the summit and fail to get there. The few who do reach the top will tell you that getting there isn’t hard; staying there is. During his reign atop the UFC featherweight division, Alexander Volkanovski often spoke of his position in terms of the mountain.
“We talk about the top of the mountain, and you’ve got all these contenders, and they’re climbing there, but I don’t want them just to not reach the top of the mountain — I want this mountain to keep f***ing growing!” Volkanovski told me before his successful title defense against Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 for a story that ran on the promotion’s website. “These m*****f***** need to continue to climb, pardon my French, because every couple of months, the top of that mountain is getting f****ing further away from them. That’s how I look at it.”
Ironically, that fight with Rodriguez was the last successful title defense of his reign. Seven months later, Ilia Topuria arrived at the top of the mountain, forcing the Australian to give up his summit.
PROPHECY FULFILLED
Topuria arrived in the UFC on short notice. He was a late fill-in for Seung Woo Choi in a bout against Youssef Zalal on Fight Island in 2020. Sporting an 8-0 record and competing for the first time in a year, the Georgian-born, Spain-based prospect waltzed into the Octagon and ended Zalal’s three-fight win streak. It was the first time he’d gone the distance, doing so on short notice against a promising talent earmarked Topuria as someone to pay close attention to in the 145-pound weight class. Less than two months later, Topuria was readying to make his sophomore appearance against Damon Jackson. Speaking with me for a feature on UFC.com ahead of the contest, Topuria laid out how he saw his career playing out without a hint of hesitation or doubt.
“I know that in a maximum of two years, I am going to be UFC champion,” he said. “I don’t have any doubts about this.”
Most fighters get these forecasts wrong. Climbing mountains always takes longer than everyone anticipates. Topuria won that fight with Jackson by first-round knockout. Next came a first-round win over Ryan Hall, moving to 11-0, and he broke into the Top 15 for the first time. Inactivity cost him his place in the rankings before an injury scuttled a pair of proposed clashes at UFC 270. Topuria was stationed at No. 15 when his two-year deadline passed, but a few weeks later, he submitted Bryce Mitchell at UFC 282. Six months later, he headlined for the first time, collecting a unanimous decision win over Josh Emmett. At 14-0 and six-for-six in the UFC, Topuria had become the top contender in the featherweight division and finally reached the top of the mountain. Though it took him longer than anticipated, the undefeated standout still made good on his original promise.
NEXT LEVEL STAR POTENTIAL
Topuria has more than a little Conor McGregor to him, not just because he aped the Irishman’s ‘I’ve Got Your Belt’ routine at the pre-fight press conference ahead of his clash with Volkanovski. There is a bravado to the featherweight champion that both draws people in and pushes others away. This is the sweet spot you want to hit to become a global icon in any field. Professional wrestling has taught us over the years that it doesn’t matter if people are cheering or booing — it’s the engagement that is important. Most people have an opinion, which means they will tune in to see him defend his title against Max Holloway later this month at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. But it’s not just the brashness or the borrowing of antics that complete the list of similarities between the two men, as like McGregor had with Ireland, Topuria seems to have captivated the whole of Spain. ‘El Matador’ has become a celebrity since dethroning Volkanovski, appearing on magazine covers while garnering social media shouts from many of the nation’s most recognizable athletes. He’s pals with Sergio Ramos and Carlos Alcaraz and met up with Lionel Messi in Miami shortly after winning the title.
Topuria, like McGregor, possesses exceptional hand speed and power for someone competing in the 145-pound weight class and deploys his weapons with an uncanny amount of confidence. He is slick and fluid, and while they come from different backgrounds, the confidence each carries when it comes to their abilities in the cage is comparable, as each operates with an unmistakable swagger from the moment their feet touch the canvas. That said, nothing is ever guaranteed in this sport. Generational talents catch losses. Careers that look destined for the Hall of Fame get derailed. Unsung athletes become champions. Right now, with his first title defense looming on the horizon, Topuria looks and feels like a future pillar of the UFC. He’s the kind of competitor that could have a larger, more global impact than some of his American counterparts and more akin to the insane wave of fame McGregor garnered.
THE NEXT BIG TEST
As is often the case, some have been critical of the path Topuria took to the top of the mountain. To them, the journey wasn’t treacherous enough, or it should have been longer, with his six fights and single victory over a Top 5 opponent. This run felt like he had been shown an express route to the summit that circumvented the more dangerous terrain. Whether that is valid is irrelevant because you can only beat the people put in front of you, and Topuria has done that every time. Some detractors may argue he faced a diminished Volkanovski, a fighter who had been knocked out just four months earlier and was making too hasty a return to action. But here is what makes this sport — in my opinion — the absolute best on the planet: there is always another test, another challenger waiting around the corner, and later this month, Topuria will face his by stepping in with Holloway, the former featherweight champ and current BMF titleholder who collected one of the most jaw-dropping knockouts in MMA at UFC 300.
In the last 11 years, only two people have beaten Max Holloway. The first was Dustin Poirier in an interim lightweight title fight where the Hawaiian competed at 155 lbs. without prepping himself fully for the change in divisions. The second is Volkanovski, who bested ‘Blessed’ three times and was undefeated at featherweight until February. That’s it. That’s the list.
Holloway is 19-4 since he began his lengthy march to the featherweight title with a win over Will Chope in 2014 and unbeaten in his five matches against anyone not named Volkanovski over the last three-plus years. Some fans may question how good fighters like Kattar or Arnold Allen really are or discount his win over Chan Sung Jung because ‘The Korean Zombie’ called it a career following the knockout loss. However, there is no intelligible way to have watched Holloway out-work Gaethje at UFC 300 and then finish things the way he did and think, “This guy isn’t a real challenge for the new champion.”
When Topuria mentioned post-UFC 298 that he wasn’t all that keen on defending the belt against the compact list of tenured talents that had already had opportunities to win gold, this fight, more than any, was the one people were clamoring to see. This is precisely the type of test everyone should want to see Topuria take, as it’s the most difficult one in the division at the moment. Holloway has never been knocked out. Topuria has already suggested many times that he will become the first on October 26, and he has a high-volume, precision offense that is a complex puzzle to solve.
Yes, Volkanovski solved it thrice, but two of those fights were ultra-competitive, and, again, Volkanovski started the year unbeaten in the 145 lb weight class, regarded as the top pound-for-pound talent in the sport. That may prompt some to suggest that Topuria should then have no trouble dispatching Holloway, but that’s the kind of MMA math that has gotten a lot of people in trouble. Topuria will soon share the Octagon with Holloway and have 25 minutes to attempt to make good on his latest promise. He reached the top of the mountain earlier this year, as he said he would; now it’s time to see how long he can stay there.
