Ilia Topuria recently beat Max Holloway in order to defend his featherweight title for the first time. It was his second fight of 2024 since winning the bout against Alexander Volkanovski in February. This has put him in a close contest against Alex Pereira in the ‘Fighter of the Year’ race. However, this race is much closer due to the variety of opinions in the MMA community.
Both Volkanovski and Holloway are considered the best featherweights in the history of UFC. Volk has defended his title five times and looked unbeatable in the division until Ilia Topuria knocked him out. Similarly, Holloway had never been dropped before Topuria did it at UFC 308. Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo recently shared his opinion on the debate.
It would be silly of us not to give him fighter of the year over a guy like Alex Pereira…Ilia Topuria beat 2 first ballot hall of famers…Alex Pereira move out the way, there’s a BMF and there’s a fighter of the year and his name is Ilia Topuria.
Henry Cejudo via Pound 4 Pound Podcast
Alex Pereira’s contention comes due to his ridiculous activity and achievement to knock out three title challengers in the same year. Many fans also credited ‘Poatan’ for being late-minute replacements and saving fight cards. However, the difference in quality of opponents is quite clear, but the debate isn’t that black and white.
😳Henry Cejudo says it would be “silly” if Ilia Topuria doesn’t get fighter of the year:
“It would be silly of us not to give him fighter of the year over a guy like Alex Pereira…Ilia Topuria beat 2 first ballot hall of famers…
Alex Pereira move out the way, there’s a BMF… pic.twitter.com/Y7T1L03d4H
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) October 28, 2024
Former UFC double champion Daniel Cormier also dubbed Topuria as the ‘Fighter of the Year.’ In order to put this into perspective, DC gave an interesting example. He noted that Pereira would have needed to beat him and Jon Jones in the same year to match Tuporia. As it turns out, Cormier and Cejudo aren’t the only ones with similar opinions.
Former featherweight champion makes case for Ilia Topuria against Alex Pereira
Ilia Topuria‘s rise to stardom has been incredible. The Georgian-Spanish fighter has always done whatever he said and turned his cockiness into his confidence. With the latest win, he has become a household name at the age of 27 and remains the best newer-generation fighter.
Similarly, Alex Pereira’s UFC career has been nothing short of unbelievable. In the past three years, the Brazilian has fought more title fights than normal ones and has lost only once. However, according to Alexander Volkanovski, that wasn’t enough. In a recent interview, Volk championed Topuria as the ‘Fighter of the Year.’
Put it this way, if it wasn’t Pereira saving cards and putting his belt on the line while saving cards, it would be clearly Ilia…Yeah you’ve had three defences but the two that Ilia took out and finishing us both, it’s hard to pick against Ilia to be honest.
Alexander Volkanovski via The Ariel Helwani Show
blockquote class=twitter-tweetp lang=en dir=ltr🤝Alexander Volkanovski thinks Ilia Topuria just edges Fighter Of The Year over Alex Pereira after last weekend’s incredible KO against Max Hollowaybrbr”Put it this way, if it wasn’t Pereira saving cards and putting his belt on the line while saving cards, it would be clearly… a href=httpst.coIFaDRuzHkspic.twitter.comIFaDRuzHksap— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) a href=httpstwitter.comHome_of_Fightstatus1851008810598400509ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwOctober 28, 2024ablockquote script async src=httpsplatform.twitter.comwidgets.js charset=utf-8script
Volkanovski is currently eyeing a featherweight title rematch against Topuria. The champion has already accepted the challenge, and UFC CEO Dana White has given the green light. The date and place are yet to be announced, and fans eagerly await it. Beating the ‘Great’ for the second could greatly boost Topuria’s resume.
