News Oliveira: I'll knock out Topuria

He has been out struck by every single elite opponent he has ever fought......even bryce mitchell and ryan hall were able to nearly hang strike for strike.


I don't care about his striking "defense" lol, he has only fought 4-5 respectable strikers in his career. And that's if we include Jai Herbert and Youssef Zalal, and Herbert nearly KO'd him and Zalal would go on to lose or draw his next 3 fights after Ilia.


He has power and is a solid athlete, but I have serious questions about him. Especially considering the fight versus Volk was a joke, against a dude who just got KO'd a few months prior and was self admittedly struggling with substance abuse (alcohol).

You can only find the knockout so many times, eventually he's going to have to consistently win rounds against elite fighters. The best performance of his career is BY FAR the fight against an aging Josh Emmett.


I'm not saying he isn't a very good fighter, but he's not who you guys think he is. Now the UFC have predictably lined him up against Do Bronx, who will be a few months from 36 years old when they fight. Ilia has only fought 3 decent/good grapplers MMA grapplers (Volk, Bryce, Hall). But Hall only has 1 submission in the UFC, so his acumen at the highest level of MMA is shaky, and the only guy he ever subbed was the ghost of BJ Penn lol. Bryce was a solid offensive grappler, and Volk was known for his ability to control fighters occasionally. Charles will be the first serious MMA grappler he has ever faced.
It's very clear that you are biased against him.

His 3 best performances have been his most recent performances, which have been in a title eliminator and two title fights.
50-43 vs Emmett is a total beatdown against a dangerous opponent who has the touch of death, regardless of his age.

He showed great defense vs Emmett.
He didn't show great defense vs Bryce, a few years before. Do you think it's possible that he improved in-between those fights?
Or that he respected the power of Emmett more than the power of Bryce Mitchell?

Remember, he's only 28, and you're mentioning the Zalal fight as something negative. A fight he dominated by grappling in his debut at 23 years old.

Most fighters have actual losses early on in their careers. Yeah, we get it, he almost lost when he got rocked by a headkick vs Herbert.
Then he knocked him out in the very next round.

He got outstruck by Volk and Holloway, does it really matter when he clearly landed the more powerful shots and found the KO in round 2 and 3?

He has had the better striking defense and striking accuracy in all his UFC-fights, that's a pretty cool statistic.

I see that you're also preemptively downplaying Charles Oliveira due to his age.

Ilia didn't call out Charles, he called out Islam.
You can't blame Ilia for Arman pulling out vs Islam, causing UFC to be pissed with him.
 
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i love oliveira but he's the one getting KO'd here.
 
Everyone has a plan until they’re punched in the face…..

Charles does have a fantastic panic wrestling game and I suspect he’ll keep it entertaining
 
Yes and Maybe Topuria will KO Charles? Its just not a forgone conclusion.
It has been pointed out he KO's Jai Hebert at LW. Everyone skips the part where Hebert dropped Toppy with a head kick and Toppy had to panic wrestle for a few minutes desperately grabbing a single and dangling his neck out like a carrot on a stick. Can he be reckless like that against Charles?

Imagine him getting rocked by Charles (If Jai can do it Charles could) and being this sloppy and not getting subbed?

If anything, this only proves ilia’s resilience. Surviving and winning is great experience.

It took Charles a while before he could survive big shots and turn it around
 
No the question isn't simply can he KO someone.
Topuria's KO power at LW against elite isn't a forgone conclusion.
The thing is that depending on the opponent, depending on the fight, the knockout may not come. Top didn't knock Emmett out, so wouldn't he have power at featherweight?
Charles threat is far greater then Jai Hebert. Maybe Charles does stand a chance?
Olives has a chance, just as he has the chance to fall in 13 seconds and be a new Aldo.

However, chances are not a question of chin, but of his skills.

Historically Charles has no chin and seems like excellent prey for El Matador, much easier to sleep than Hebert, who is still in orbit today.
 
Don’t need heart in grappling ?

Swanson turned Charles off with a body shot on the feet. Something Topuria can do, but you forgot we were specifically talking about these two guys grappling. You're reaching now to connect the dots <lol>
 
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Not sure about knock out, but charles has a huge chance and not the guy to write off

Dangerous fight for Topuiria and one he could lose. I can't wait to see how this plays out
 
If anything, this only proves ilia’s resilience. Surviving and winning is great experience.

It took Charles a while before he could survive big shots and turn it around
That's one way of looking at it. But the fact remains that a highly skilled fighter can be more reckless and take more chances against a Larger but lesser skilled opponent. If Toppy is sloppy like that against Charles who is a massive threat to submit and can also drop you standing he won't last long. Just a reason why Toppy dominating with power shots is not a given.
 
The thing is that depending on the opponent, depending on the fight, the knockout may not come. Top didn't knock Emmett out, so wouldn't he have power at featherweight?

Olives has a chance, just as he has the chance to fall in 13 seconds and be a new Aldo.

However, chances are not a question of chin, but of his skills.

Historically Charles has no chin and seems like excellent prey for El Matador, much easier to sleep than Hebert, who is still in orbit today.
Re the fight with Emmet:
Not getting the KO is in part to Toppy having to respect the threat coming back from Emmet.

I am pretty sure Charles poses an much greater threat. He can drop you and he doesn't need to KO you clean as if he gets you in trouble you get subbed.

Charles is easy to sleep? Easier than Herbert? How did you come to that conclusion? Charles has 46 pro fights and has 4 losses by KO/TKO. One of those was a freak esophagus tear. So really 3 out of 46 for 6.5%

Herbert has 3 KO losses in 20 fights so 15%. You are free to make your own conclusions but to say Charles is easier to sleep than Jai Hebert is baseless and in fact directly contradicted by objective information.
 
Re the fight with Emmet:
Not getting the KO is in part to Toppy having to respect the threat coming back from Emmet.

I am pretty sure Charles poses an much greater threat. He can drop you and he doesn't need to KO you clean as if he gets you in trouble you get subbed.

Charles is easy to sleep? Easier than Herbert? How did you come to that conclusion? Charles has 46 pro fights and has 4 losses by KO/TKO. One of those was a freak esophagus tear. So really 3 out of 46 for 6.5%

Herbert has 3 KO losses in 20 fights so 15%. You are free to make your own conclusions but to say Charles is easier to sleep than Jai Hebert is baseless and in fact directly contradicted by objective information.
I mean, Charles gets rocked in almost every fight he is in, and Ilia may be the hardest and most accurate puncher he's faced. He may not be easier to sleep than Jai, but he's pretty easy to hurt on the feet. I just can't see Charles not getting hurt badly in this fight unless he manages to catch Ilia first early in the fight, which is completely possible.

If Ilia gets past Charles, I don't think he's going to have any problems with the other top LWs.
 
That's one way of looking at it. But the fact remains that a highly skilled fighter can be more reckless and take more chances against a Larger but lesser skilled opponent. If Toppy is sloppy like that against Charles who is a massive threat to submit and can also drop you standing he won't last long. Just a reason why Toppy dominating with power shots is not a given.

What I saw from that fight with herbert was how easy herbert was able to get topuria on the back foot just by throwing knees and long range strikes. Topuria looked like a completely different fighter on the back foot. It's going to be fascinating to see who pressures who in this topuria vs. Charles match up because neither guy is known for backing up.
 
I mean, Charles gets rocked in almost every fight he is in, and Ilia may be the hardest and most accurate puncher he's faced. He may not be easier to sleep than Jai, but he's pretty easy to hurt on the feet. I just can't see Charles not getting hurt badly in this fight unless he manages to catch Ilia first early in the fight, which is completely possible.

If Ilia gets past Charles, I don't think he's going to have any problems with the other top LWs.
Charles gets hurt and still wins. Toppy hits harder than Gathje? Chandler? Toppy could win for sure but the narrative pushed by some that his Touch of Death power is 100% assured to lay waste to the LW division is a bit silly.

Conor was able to use his power at FW because he didn't have to deal with TDs from bigger guys. As soon has he was against guys his size he wasn't as successful. Same can easily happen for Toppy. He got dropped by Jai Hebert and if that happened against Charles he is tapping seconds later.
 
Charles is easy to sleep? Easier than Herbert? How did you come to that conclusion? Charles has 46 pro fights and has 4 losses by KO/TKO. One of those was a freak esophagus tear. So really 3 out of 46 for 6.5%

Herbert has 3 KO losses in 20 fights so 15%. You are free to make your own conclusions but to say Charles is easier to sleep than Jai Hebert is baseless and in fact directly contradicted by objective information.
Again, it's not a matter of statistics, but rather the power of one man to knock another out with one punch, and Topuria demonstrated this frighteningly by displacing a lightweight in the air.

Imagine a left hand from Topuria catching Charles in the liver? The fight is over instantly
Charles gets hurt and still wins. Toppy hits harder than Gathje? Chandler?
While Poirier, Gaethje were not able to knock out Max, we saw what Topuria did.
He got dropped by Jai Hebert and if that happened against Charles he is tapping seconds later.
Imagine if he gets knocked down by Topuria? He'll be finished seconds later. Just like he was against Islam.
Topuria would enter Charles' guard and finish him off just like he did with Hall.

I think for the good of MMA, Topuria needs to win this fight. Charles has already contributed to the sport and had his moment.

Let it be the Matador's turn, Amen.
 
Charles gets hurt and still wins. Toppy hits harder than Gathje? Chandler? Toppy could win for sure but the narrative pushed by some that his Touch of Death power is 100% assured to lay waste to the LW division is a bit silly.

Conor was able to use his power at FW because he didn't have to deal with TDs from bigger guys. As soon has he was against guys his size he wasn't as successful. Same can easily happen for Toppy. He got dropped by Jai Hebert and if that happened against Charles he is tapping seconds later.
He absolutely hits harder than Justin and Chandler. You can't really compare Conor's wrestling ability to Ilia's.. Ilia's a better wrestler than almost everyone at LW, Conor was one of the worst.. The division has been extremely overrated because these guys put on exciting fights, but there's a good chance that Illia runs through all the top guys.
 
He absolutely hits harder than Justin and Chandler. You can't really compare Conor's wrestling ability to Ilia's.. Ilia's a better wrestler than almost everyone at LW, Conor was one of the worst.. The division has been extremely overrated because these guys put on exciting fights, but there's a good chance that Illia runs through all the top guys.
Guess we will see.
 
If Charles finishes the Georgian wannabe-McGregor, I'll definitely be happy for the rest of the year.
 
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