The Topuria Situation

[Young Calf Kick]

I was reading some other thread just now where a dude commented about how the Lightweight division is full of strikers that are pretty old (around 34). Poirier, Gaethje, Hooker, Holloway, Oliveira and Chandler all seem to be in the tail end of their career while still sporting a top 10 rank.

And then I realized: Topuria leaving the FW belt and division is genius.

He’s just turned 28 and has years and years left in him. He has an undefeated legacy at FW in which he decapitated two FW GOAT contenders. Now, he’s finding himself in a division where almost all the ranked top 10 are playing musical chairs. There are also a lot of very favourable style matchups.

Sure, he’ll bet high and say he’s only interested in fighting the champion Makhachev. But even if he doesn’t get it, there is no problem. He can just fight anyone with a rank and it will be a good match; LW is flooded with strikers that have name value.

If Topuria is truly as good as he says he is he can rack up a lot of aging fighters with big names. Guys like Poirier, Gaethje, Oliveira and even Hooker are still dangerous, but just about one or two fights removed from going on the old man losing skid that we’ve seen countless other greats fall onto.

Both Islam and Tsarukyan, and problably Oliveira are going to give him big problems, but Topuria is fair game in every fight he’s going to get.

Let’s see what the kid has.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Just really disappointed he ran away from 145 before facing Evloev who he had bad blood with and is 9-0 in the UFC. The Lopes and Jean Silva fights were interesting too. Oh well, if he loses to Makhachev he will just be some stupid little flash in the pan, a wannabe McGregor story...which is the most likely outcome.

 

[whocares]

"He's only beat washed up cans" - Sherdog, 2028

 

[Young Calf Kick]

Just really disappointed he ran away from 145 before facing Evloev who he had bad blood with and is 9-0 in the UFC. The Lopes and Jean Silva fights were interesting too. Oh well, if he loses to Makhachev he will just be some stupid little flash in the pan, a wannabe McGregor story...which is the most likely outcome.

Do you really care about him facing Evloev/Lopes/Silva more than the prospect of him finally shaking things up in the LW division though? Because it’s been stale like a mothafucka.

Seems like you just kinda dislike him tbh.

 

[lerobshow]

I was reading some other thread just now about how the Lightweight division is full of strikers that are pretty old (around 34). Poirier, Gaethje, Hooker, Holloway, Oliveira and Chandler all seem to be in the tail end of their career while still sporting a top 10 rank.

And then I realized: Topuria leaving the FW belt and division is genius.

He’s just turned 28 and has years and years left in him. He has an undefeated legacy at FW in which he decapitated two FW GOAT contenders. Now, he’s finding himself in a division where almost all the ranked top 10 are playing musical chairs. There are also a lot of very favourable style matchups.

Sure, he’ll bet high and say he’s only interested in fighting the champion Makhachev. But even if he doesn’t get it, there is no problem. He can just fight anyone with a rank and it will be a good match; LW is flooded with strikers that have name value.

If Topuria is truly as good as he says he is he can rack up a lot of aging fighters with big names. Guys like Poirier, Gaethje, Oliveira and even Hooker are still dangerous, but just about one or two fights removed from going on the old man losing skid that we’ve seen countless other greats fall onto.

Both Islam and Tsarukyan, and problably Oliveira are going to give him big problems, but Topuria is fair game in every fight he’s going to get.

Let’s see what the kid has.

Ive made a post about that a week ago I think saying that I would like to see Poirier vs Topuria. Many people on here seem to think that Dustin is easy work for Topuria but (and I say that as a huge fan of Illia) slow down a little bit.

Poirier has the size, he has the boxing, he has the experience. I think Topuria beat him but I think Dustin will hold his own no doubt about that.

As far as the booking, many people said it was nonsense. But we recently learned that they are actually talking about Dustin vs Topuria (not as the only matchup but Topuria is one of the option for Poirier last fight).

Dude, Topuria reminds me of 2014 Conor. And just to be clear, I’m talking strictly about the UFC fighter, not the guy outside the cage. But man, Topuria gives off the same vibes as Conor back then.

It’s always tricky to differentiate between self-confidence, arrogance, and cockiness. But both Topuria and McGregor have that real self-confidence—you can just feel it.

 

[HatKick]

Don't care if it's Islam, Poirier, Oliveira or Gaethje. I just wanna see Topuria fight the LW elite! I think he can hang and then some.

 

[lerobshow]

Don't care if it's Islam, Poirier, Oliveira or Gaethje. I just wanna see Topuria fight the LW elite! I think he can hang and then some.

I dont want to see him fight Gaethje. Thats one of the worst fight for Justin at this point. Oliveira though would be tricky! I want someone to test Topuria on the ground. Because Illia is from a grappling background so I want to see how he handle these kind of situations.

I guess the Islam fight will give us answers.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Dude was getting tagged up by Bryce Mitchell and put on his back and had NOTHING from the bottom for the rest of that round, however the power difference on the feet was just too big and Bryce got overwhelmed eventually.

Then he went to absolute war with Jai Herbert until he pulled the fight out of his ass with, all kidding aside, a Black Beast type victory where he got bailed out by his power once again.

How he's riding high and feeling invincible after beating some looooooooong time vets that are in the Adesanya phase of their career.

None of this is to say he's not an elite fighter, but he may very well get brought back down to Earth at 155.....

 

[BlackStrap]

I was reading some other thread just now where a dude commented about how the Lightweight division is full of strikers that are pretty old (around 34). Poirier, Gaethje, Hooker, Holloway, Oliveira and Chandler all seem to be in the tail end of their career while still sporting a top 10 rank.

And then I realized: Topuria leaving the FW belt and division is genius.

He’s just turned 28 and has years and years left in him. He has an undefeated legacy at FW in which he decapitated two FW GOAT contenders. Now, he’s finding himself in a division where almost all the ranked top 10 are playing musical chairs. There are also a lot of very favourable style matchups.

Sure, he’ll bet high and say he’s only interested in fighting the champion Makhachev. But even if he doesn’t get it, there is no problem. He can just fight anyone with a rank and it will be a good match; LW is flooded with strikers that have name value.

If Topuria is truly as good as he says he is he can rack up a lot of aging fighters with big names. Guys like Poirier, Gaethje, Oliveira and even Hooker are still dangerous, but just about one or two fights removed from going on the old man losing skid that we’ve seen countless other greats fall onto.

Both Islam and Tsarukyan, and problably Oliveira are going to give him big problems, but Topuria is fair game in every fight he’s going to get.

Let’s see what the kid has.

Solid take. So true about the metrics surrounding the current top 10 at Lightweight. Also, while the stated target is Islam, I wonder about whether Islam will even be at lightweight for him to fight by the time he's proven himself.

 

[Skarsgard]

I like the dude, but he's begging to get smacked by some humility. Don't see why fighting a contender before a title shot would be so bad. Not like he cleared 145 of any contenders or defended the belt several times.

 

[BowserJr]

Do you really care about him facing Evloev/Lopes/Silva more than the prospect of him finally shaking things up in the LW division though? Because it’s been stale like a mothafucka.

Seems like you just kinda dislike him tbh.

He's got nothing for Islam.

The best thing for LW is for Islam to move up.

The best thing for FW is for Top to clear it out then maybe move up to add to LW at that point

 

[jeff7b9]

He is making a monumental mistake when it comes to negotiations. Same brutally dumb mistake Henry made.

Relinquished all his leverage prior to asking for a favor.

"He is betting on himself."

Well he could have done that with a title to negotiate with, now he is standing around with his dick in his hands.

He matches up well with the aging strikers which have been rank squatting. Not sure how his midget ass will do against Islam or Arman though. Oliveira is no picnic either.

Remember he gave up championship status and presumably championship pay. And he would have been a substantial favorite to keep defending that FW strap and building a legacy at 145

Dude is MAYBE 5'7.

 

[BowserJr]

I like the dude, but he's begging to get smacked by some humility. Don't see why fighting a contender before a title shot would be so bad. Not like he cleared 145 of any contenders or defended the belt several times.

Yeah either clear 145 or face 2 contenders before a crack at LW strap