Ilia Topuria, Three-Division Champ?!?
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Ilia Topuria wants to make Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) history ... by 2027?
UFC’s newly-minted Featherweight kingpin makes his highly-anticipated, first-ever title defense against Baddest Motherf—ker (BMF), Max Holloway, at UFC 308 this weekend (Sat., Oct. 26, 2024) from inside Etihad Arena on "Fight Island" in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
While Topuria focuses on this weekend's incredibly tough 145-pound fight against "Blessed," the undefeated fighter has his eyes set on UFC history. Indeed, UFC on TNT Sports asked Topuria earier today (Tues., Oct. 22, 2024) what he thinks he will achieve in three years' time.
"Probably a three-weight champion," Topuria said. "Yeah, that's my goal. You're not going to see me in the Welterweight division like this: skinny. You're going to see my different.
“That's the goal,” he added. “Move up to the Lightweight division, get that belt, and then move up to the Welterweight division."
An endless amount of fighters have claimed that they will be the ones to win three belts, from Raul Rosas Jr. to Tresean Gore (remember him) to Israel Adesanya; however, none have done it ... yet.
To be real, there is only one fighter who has a real chance of achieving it sooner rather than later: current Light Heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira, who has claimed the Middleweight title and is only missing the Heavyweight belt.
Of course, there are outliers like Islam Makhachev, who has all of the talent in the world and might only need an opportunity to obtain multiple belts. In addition, Conor McGregor — who seemingly might never fight again — is UFC's golden goose and can get a title shot in a third division coming off 405,935 losses if need be.
That’s called “privilege.”
Nevertheless, who knows where Topuria falls into any or all of these buckets, but if he does decimate Holloway as he predicts, the path to UFC history could come soon.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 308 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ "Prelims" matches at 10 a.m. ET, followed by the UFC 308 PPV main card start time at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To checkout the complete UFC 308 fight card and PPV lineup click here.
