Just days out from his title return at UFC 317, Ilia Topuria has all the tools on offer to beat incoming foe Charles Oliveira, according to his arch-rival’s head coach.
Topuria, who headlines the promotion’s annual International Fight Week card this weekend, will look to add the lightweight crown to his decorated mantel.
And seeing the vacant crown up for grabs, Topuria, who had relentlessly chased a super fight with Islam Makhachev all year, has missed out on his chance to fight the Russian next. Himself vacating the title this weekend, Makhachev will pursue gold a division higher in a long-mooted welterweight leap.
Still hoping to land a future showdown with Makhachev — potentially as high as welterweight — Topuria has his hands full this weekend, though.
Tasked with beating former champion Oliveira, Topuria has rather surprisingly got the backing of veteran head coach Javier Mendez.
Pulling no punches despite his allegiance to Makhachev, Mendez claimed that no matter where the bout with Oliveira ends up, Topuria is more than capable of emerging with a win. And thus, the lightweight crown in tow.
“We have two interesting warriors here because number one, we got Ilia Topuria, who’s on a tear,” Mendez said on Instagram. “He’s on a tear. And he’s killed everybody in the featherweight division. He’s taken out Alex Volkanovski, who, to me, was the greatest featherweight of all time. And then he followed up by doing a spectacular fight with Max Holloway. And in that particular fight, you know, he took out Holloway.”
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“… So he’s going into the fight with Charles Oliveira, and I do favor Ilia to win this fight,” Mendez added. “Because of his overall mental game and his overall technical game. Got a very good standup. He’s very good at boxing. He’s very good in the grappling. And he’s got the whole, whole everything — got the whole package.”
But it’s not just Mendez who is confident of Topuria’s win over Oliveira. But the Spaniard is his usual confident himself as well.
Ilia Topuria promises huge KO win over Charles Oliveira
Entering his sophomore lightweight outing on some run of form, Topuria will return to the weight class for the first time since a 2022 knockout of Jai Herbert.
And tasked with taking out the gutsy Brazilian star, Oliveira, Topuria claimed within just two minutes — he should have stopped the Sao Paulo star. As a result, Topuria hopes to land his second Octagon crown inside just five years in the organization.
“This is what’s going to happen with Charles, he thinks that he has some opportunities. But the reality is that he has not,” Topuria told Uncrowned.
“The only thing he has to do is show up. And I’m going to do the rest. I’m going to finish him in the first round,” he boasted.
