Diego Lopes believes Ilia Topuria deserves recognition as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world right now.
Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) has delivered three consecutive knockout victories over former UFC champions Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, and Charles Oliveira — with his win over “Do Bronx” at UFC 317 earning him the UFC lightweight title.
Lopes (26-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC), who recently came up short in his bid for the featherweight title vacated by Topuria earlier this year, believes that string of victories sets Topuria apart from his pound-for-pound rival, Islam Makhachev.
"I think because of Topuria's last three wins, that puts him in that sport, right?" Lopes told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. "We're talking about the quality of opponents compared to Islam's. I'm not trying to take anything away from Islam and his wins over (Dustin) Poirier, Oliveira, Renato Moicano, but speaking about legacy, the people who Topuria beat give him that spot."
At UFC 317, Ilia Topuria made history by becoming the tenth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two different weight classes—and the first to do so while remaining undefeated.
Originally debuting in the UFC in 2020 as a feared submission specialist, the Spanish-Georgian star has rapidly evolved into one of the sport’s most dangerous strikers.
After becoming the first man to knock out Max Holloway last October, “El Matador” delivered a similar finish to Charles Oliveira to claim the vacant lightweight championship.
"We knew that could happen because of their fighting styles," Lopes said. "Obviously, everyone who's a fan of Charles didn't want it to be this way, but we need to be aware of things. You had to put your fandom aside and acknowledge the quality of technique of Ilia. We knew that a well-placed shot from Ilia would put him to sleep, and that's exactly what happened.
"The only time we've seen Topuria have a tough time was in his debut (against Youseff Zalal), which was a close fight, and when he fought that tall kid at 155 (Jai Herbert) who he knocked out," Lopes said. "After that he's evolved a lot, he's evolved a lot. He surprised me a lot because when Charles closed the distance, and you see he has a very good position to get a takedown and in unable to take him down. I was actually next to a friend and when I saw Charles unable to get him down despite having a good position, I looked at my friend and said, 'Ok, he's a problem.'
"He's a problem because he's a guy that knows much more than just boxing. He can wrestle, and that can give Islam trouble. Also, we make an analysis based on the fights that happened, but once you're there it can be a completely different fight. It happened to me against Volk. I expected a certain fight, and he was totally different in there. Same thing here. Ilia can focus so much on the wrestling that maybe he gets surprised on the feet, which happened to Volkanovski in the second fight against Islam with the head kick. But it can also happen that Islam worries too much about Topuria's boxing and underestimate his wrestling. I don't know. A lot can happen. I think it's a 50-50 fight."
