UFC 317 Main Card on ESPN+ PPV
- 155 lbs.: Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira for the vacant UFC lightweight title
- 125 lbs.: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France for the UFC flyweight title
185 lbs.: Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov- 155 lbs.: Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano
- 125 lbs.: Brandon Royval vs. Joshua Van
It’s a shame seeing what has happened to Costa
Topuria’s knockout of Oliveira was the most impressive knockout of any title fight ever. More impressive than McGregor over Aldo.
I don’t think so. Aldo reigned over the division for what, 7-8 years? Charles wasn’t even the champ when Topuria beat him, and even when Charles was the champ, he had two defenses. No disrespect to Oliveira but that’s nowhere near as huge as knocking out Aldo after basically being unbeatable for the better part of a decade.
It’s different levels of the game.
Topuria is better fighter overall IMO and has already accomplished more than Conor. But I think Conor’s knockout over Aldo is one of the single greatest wins in the history of the sport. People knew Conor was really good but his best win was a struggle against Mendes, I don’t think any hardcore fan thought he was gonna go in and smoke Aldo in less than 20 seconds. Aldo had been tired before in fights but never really gotten badly hurt.
Topuria was the rightful favorite, and a big favorite at that. Skill for skill Charles is probably a little better but he is way too hittable and everyone knew that, and Topuria’s power would be too much. Not to discredit Topuria because nobody has done what he did, but it’s not the same thing. Nobody could conceive of Aldo losing at the time much less getting ONE SHOT KO’d, I was completely in shock when it happened, I never saw it coming.
No need to compare them.
And to be clear I think Topuria capturing the belt against Oliveira is a better win than Conor beating Alvarez. Yes Eddie was the actual champ at the time but beating Oliveira like that hasn’t been done before. Skill wise this version of Charles destroys Eddie, plus Oliveira has a better overall resume.
Funnily enough, Conor beating Eddie at was last time LW belt changed hands through a challenger defeating the actual reigning champion. All title changes since have occurred due to champ being stripped, vacating, or retiring, leading to the title bouts being for the vacant championship
Good point, neither Khabib or Islam lost their belts by losing.