Ilia Topuria does not anticipate his upcoming fight against Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 will last the full duration.
Known as “El Matador,” Topuria has the opportunity to claim a championship in a second UFC division when he faces Oliveira in the headline bout of the June 28th pay-per-view event, set to conclude International Fight Week in Las Vegas. The undefeated fighter recently relinquished his featherweight title after successfully defending it twice against Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. His current focus is solely on securing the lightweight belt, which is vacant for this contest.
Earlier this week, Topuria shared a brief training video accompanied by a caption that posed the question, “What do you prefer, submitting him or knocking him out?” This caption strongly suggested his expectation to finish Oliveira to capture the lightweight championship.
Topuria`s assertion is supported by his impressive track record as one of mixed martial arts` most effective finishers in recent years. In his eight UFC appearances, he has gone the distance only twice. His last two victories were particularly significant: he is the only fighter to defeat Alexander Volkanovski in the featherweight division and the only one to finish Max Holloway by knockout.
While he holds more wins by submission (8) than by KO/TKO (6) overall, it`s worth noting that seven of these submission victories occurred prior to his debut in the UFC.
In Charles Oliveira, Topuria meets an opponent who is equally dangerous with multiple paths to victory. “Do Bronx” boasts a career total of 10 KOs/TKOs and 21 submissions across 46 fights. He currently holds the UFC records for the most finishes (20) and the most submissions (16). Oliveira`s two most recent outings have gone the distance; he earned a decision victory over Michael Chandler at UFC 309 to bounce back from a close split decision loss to Arman Tsarukyan.
UFC 317 features the Topuria vs. Oliveira bout for the vacant lightweight championship as its main event. The co-main event will see flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja attempting his fourth consecutive title defense against Kai Kara-France.
