Former champion gives UFC 317 main event | MMA News
A battle for the vacant light-weight title between former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria (16-0) and former 155-pound titleholder Charles Oliveira (35-10, 1 NC) headlines Saturday’s UFC 317 battle card.
Topuria vacated the featherweight championship to transfer up a division in pursuit of a second UFC title. Oliveira has the chance to grow to be a two-time light-weight champion. Former middleweight titleholder Robert Whittaker weighed in on the matchup and gave his prediction.
“Obviously Charles Oliveira is a weapon of a fighter. I’m a big fan of his. Big fan of Ilia as well, but I love Charles. Who doesn’t? Who doesn’t love the story that he has? The heart,” Whittaker stated on the MMArcade Podcast. “He used to be such a quitter in those early days in the UFC and he just stopped quitting. He found something in him and came back with a vengeance all the way to the tittle.
“Ilia’s a totally different beast. I believe that a lot of assist that’s going in the direction of Charles profitable this battle comes from the actual fact that we do not know what Ilia goes to appear to be shifting up,” Whittaker continued. “I’ve seen a lot of photographs circulating with Ilia next to (Paul Rosa Jr.) and Charles next to (Rosa Jr.). Looking at dimension discrepancies, I do not suppose it is going to be a downside.”
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Stylistically, Whittaker doesn’t think Oliveira matches up that well against Topuria. Oliveira is durable and dangerous, but Topuria has a skillset that can pose problems for even the most well-rounded fighters.
“Ilia is a weapon. What he did to Volk (Alexander Volkanovski) and what he did to Max [Holloway], two of the best featherweights. Volk being the best featherweight to have ever finished it. He starched two legends of the game. That is unreal. Ilia’s skillset is ridiculous,” Whittaker said.
“Charles is phenomenal as properly. He’s tremendous harmful off his back. Ilia has the grappling to do it. Charles standing, very textbook but will get hit a lot. Ilia loves scrapping, loves shifting on the inside, loves slipping punches to land punches. He’s so good at soiled boxing. I just do not see where Charles wins this battle against ilia.
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