Is Ilia Topuria the next Conor McGregor? Brazilian lightweight Renato Moicano believes he’s better!
The 27-year-old Spaniard has taken the fight world by storm, sending ‘The Great’ Alexander Volkanovski to the shadow realm and then following it up with knocking out the unbreakable Max Holloway in his first title defense at UFC 308.
Given the trash talk, the confident promises, and the knack of delivering on them, Topuria’s rise to the top has often been compared to Conor McGregor. Of course, the similar tattoos further the comparisons.
However, Moicano believes, Topuria is better than the OG. McGregor, for his greatness, could never truly reach his full potential; a bit like Anakin Skywalker, getting his wings singed on Mustafar. McGregor, of course, messed up his limbs long after falling off the proverbial mountain.
Moicano thinks McGregor went off the rocker after all the money he made.
“I think he is better than McGregor… Because you know, McGregor is like, we didn’t see the best McGregor… I think Topuria is better even if McGregor would take the right path you know – striking, wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu.”
He’s not wrong. Topuria has already done a couple of things McGregor never could. The Irishman never defended either of his titles but he never knocked out Max Holloway.
Moicano is not alone in his opinion. Even Islam Makhachev’s coach at AKA, Javier Mendez believes Topuria has long blown past anything McGregor had promised to be.
Why Topuria trumps McGregor, coach Mendez explains
Mendez feels that Topuria has an excellent ground game, which McGregor never possessed. The AKA coach believes El Matador is an all-round pitcher and could do everything to an opponent, if he really wanted to, an ability McGregor never possessed.
Conor was not a grappler as much, you know. He didn’t take people down, he mostly did the stand-up. But Topuria could do it all.”
This was evident when he fought Khabib Nurmagomedov and got so gassed out trying to defend takedowns in the first round at UFC 229 that by the second round, Nurmagomedov was knocking him down. McGregor for all his bravado and achievements was pretty much a one-trick pony.
On his day, he was unbeatable as a striker. He could take on the likes of Eddie Alvarez and Chad Mendes and just dominate them on the feet. But when the fight got to the ground, even against someone like Nate Diaz, he struggled to keep up, at times well before the championship rounds.
View this post on Instagram
Topuria, of course, hasn’t faced similar challenges yet. But given his proclivity for trash-talking, he might just be faced with a real challenge on the ground soon.
The Spaniard has been calling out lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and claiming that he would submit the Dagestani. As good as he is, Topuria might want to be careful about what he wishes for. It might just come true.
