- Ilia Topuria takes on Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title at UFC 317
- Islam Makhachev has moved up, meaning Topuria could become double champ
- Topuria made bold prediction for his main event showdown on Saturday
Ilia Topuria has made a bold prediction for his huge UFC 317 showdown with Charles Oliveira on Saturday night.
Topuria, who is moving up to lightweight to face the Brazilian for the vacant belt, is attempting to become a double champ having dominated the best of the featherweight division before leaving his title behind.
He believes his incredible power will still translate to the weight class above and predicts a first-round KO of Oliveira.
The 28-year-old told the Ariel Helwani Show: ‘I’m going to finish him in the first round. He walks forward — this is all I need.
‘The time that it takes me to knock out my opponents is the time that it takes me to close the distance, because they run away. They run, they move side to side, and once I close the distance and I go with my combinations, I knock them out.
‘But with Charles, I’m not going to need to close the distance because he walks forward. This is all I need to take his lights out. Just try to stay in the middle of the Octagon. Just try to do that, and you’re not going to see me coming.’
Topuria is a UFC sensation and has never lost in his professional career.
In fact, only two of his contests have gone the distance, such is his power and overall skillset.
Oliveira has also proven himself to be consistently among the most dangerous lightweights in the world and previously held the belt.
While Topuria is aware of the calibre of opponent, he feels he has seen those scenarios before.
‘You can never count him out because he’s a dangerous guy’, Topuria added. ‘He has the most finishes in the UFC’s history. But I have faced those kind of situations many, many times, with [Alexander Volkanovski], with Max Holloway.
‘No one could beat them. No one could knock them out. And they always had this thing in their mind, like, “Oh, I faced this guy and this one and that. No one could knock me out.” You never faced me. You never faced someone that skillful like me.
‘This is what I’ve been saying for a long time. The skill development I’m bringing to this sport, they’ve never felt it, they never saw it. So this is what’s going to happen with Charles.
‘He thinks that he has some opportunities, but the reality is that he [does] not. The only thing he has to do is show up, and I’ll do the rest.’
And the Spaniard believes too much is made of the weight difference and fears he’ll struggle up a division.
He explained: ‘If I’m walking in the street with my wife and someone says something to her, I’m not going to ask him, “How much is your weight? What is your reach? Height?”
‘I will stay there and I’m going to take his head off. This is how I think. This is the fight business. I don’t care how much is your weight. If we have a fight, let’s fight. If you have 10 extra pounds, congratulations, but that’s not going to help you.
‘For sure [I could fight at welterweight before I’m done]. That could happen. Listen, if you have a champion like Belal [Muhammad], or I don’t know many names that I could bring right now, that’s an easy path. You can go slap him and get that title, and that’s it.’
Topuria’s clash with Oliveira takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with a flyweight title fight as the co-main event as Alexandre Pantoja takes on Kai Kara-France.
