Aljamain Sterling Breaks Down Islam Makhachev’s Strengths and Ilia Topuria’s Advantages in the Fight

Even someone as opinionated as former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling doesn’t know who to pick in the potential matchup between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria. That’s how close this touted matchup is on paper. Islam has grappling, fight IQ to rival Jon Jons, but Topuria has speed and aggression Islam hasn’t seen before. It’s a gambler’s nightmare.

The UFC bantamweight king, Topuria, has officially vacated his throne with aspirations of recreating his success in the lightweight division. After bulldozing his way through practically the entire bantamweight division, the Spaniard realized making 145 lbs was just not going to be a feasible option for him anymore and decided to try his luck out with the big boy at 155 lbs.

His aspirations are lofty, but so are his matchmaking demands. Not only does he want a title shot against Islam Makhachev, but he also wants that to be his first fight in the lightweight division.

And as luck would have it, the lightweight champion also seems to be running out of opponents, so this fight makes sense for him. After his dominant victory over Renato Moicano, Makhachev was left wondering what to do next.

But that doesn’t mean he wants to fight Topuria. In fact, his camp has been demanding that the Spaniard take on a fight for the position of the #1 contender. That said, it does look like this mega-fight is going down sometime this year.

And as such, Aljo was happy to try and break it down. “The speed advantage, Ilia Topuria, boxing speed, Ilia Topuria, calf kicks…..Ilia Topuria uses those, way better than Islam Makhachev.”, he said, praising the unique advantages the Spaniard brings to the table.

Despite listing these attributes, Aljo pointed out that Makhachev brought his own arsenal of nukes with him.

“Wrestling, control, and submissions, Islam Makhachev. Fight IQ….they’re neck and neck. Strength, I’m going towards Islam. And the cardio, Islam cuts so much weight, I think he gets tired in the later rounds.”, he noted. 

His statement echoed the sentiment of fans as well, who commented things such as, “Mind says Islam but heart says Ilia for some reason.” It should be noted that the UFC has not officially announced the fight.

But with rumors of the fight taking place, both fighters have been doing their best to rile up the fans by talking trash about the other during press conferences.

It started off with Islam verbally accepting the challenge, saying that if he can make 155, he should step into the octagon. So naturally, the Spaniard had to clap back at the champion.

Ilia calls out ‘Scared’ Islam

Ilia has shown time and again that he can push anyone into taking a swing at him. Of course, he does, knowing he can swing back faster and with far more power and accuracy.

The unwavering confidence of a champion, charisma, and the ability to turn anything they can use against you into trash talk; it’s what he does.

And that’s exactly what he has been doing ever since rumors of this potential fight started running rampant.

For ‘El Matador’ it is an opportunity to dethrone arguably the greatest lightweight champion since Khabib Nurmagomedov himself. And to help him do that, he has already begun the mind games.

“He’s afraid. Of course he’s afraid”, he said about Islam, before adding, “as usual, it’s an easy fight until they put your name on the contract. We all know, if it were that easy and if I’m small as he says, he would already share the octagon with me.”

In a sport where being fearless is a prerequisite, you can’t really ignore a callout from a fighter calling you scared. But we all know Makhachev is anything but scared. He has long stated that as lightweight champion, he should be able to fight King Konf if he can make the 155lb weight limit on a Saturday night.

And it’s not just all talk, he backed his words when he fought Renato Moicano on short notice in his last fight. But with no offense intended at Moiacano, Topuria could actually beat him in a fair fight.