A fight for the vacant lightweight 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 fight card.
Topuria vacated the featherweight championship to move up a division in pursuit of a second UFC title. Oliveira has the opportunity to become a two-time lightweight 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 said 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 different beast. I think that a lot of support that’s going towards Charles winning this fight comes from the fact that we don’t know what Ilia is going to look like moving up,” Whittaker continued. “I’ve seen a lot of photos circulating with Ilia next to (Paul Rosa Jr.) and Charles next to (Rosa Jr.). Looking at size discrepancies, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
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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 done it. He starched two legends of the sport. That is unreal. Ilia’s skillset is ridiculous,” Whittaker said.
“Charles is phenomenal as well. He’s super dangerous off his back. Ilia has the grappling to do it. Charles standing, very textbook but gets hit a lot. Ilia loves scrapping, loves moving on the inside, loves slipping punches to land punches. He’s so good at dirty boxing. I just don’t see where Charles wins this fight against ilia.
