Following his dramatic third-round finish of Max Holloway at UFC 308, Ilia ‘El Matador’ Topuria has not only cemented himself as among the finest pound-for-pound fighters on the roster but additionally one among the largest superstars in the complete sport.
With back-to-back knockouts over Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski, there’s a powerful argument that ‘El Matador’ has now surpassed the dominant light heavyweight champion because the front-runner for the 2024 Fighter of the Yr award.
2024 Fighter of the Yr: LHW king Alex Pereira or FW superstar Ilia Topuria?
There are still two months of UFC motion to sit up for this 12 months, however the race to be crowned the 2024 ‘Fighter of the Yr’ now has just two runners – light heavyweight powerhouse Alex Pereira, and featherweight superstar Ilia Topuria.
Pereira has scored three knockouts this 12 months; those coming against Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and Khalil Rountree Jr, whereas Topuria has finished the consensus two biggest featherweights of all time in Holloway and Volkanovski.
The controversy over who ‘deserves’ the 2024 Fighter of the Yr award is a tricky one to call, with UFC CEO Dana White admitting that he’s now on the fence following Topuria’s third-round KO last night.
“Yeah, that’s a great query, I don’t know, that’s a tricky one… I’d have to take a look at the numbers and stats, but , you may’t take it away from either one among them for what they’ve done this 12 months.
“I mean Alex, he’s on vacation in Australia, we call him, he packs up and heads home to the fight; he’s just built different that guy. He doesn’t care a few full camp, or being hurt, he’ll get in there and fight.”
Whilst White could be on the fence, former double champion Daniel Cormier definitely isn’t as he made the argument on the UFC 308 broadcast that there isn’t even a debate available.
“Truthfully, I believe it [UFC 308] ends the conversation, for my part… I get that Alex has done some tremendous things but that victory, either one among those victories are larger than any of Alex’s victories this 12 months.
“He knocked out Max and Volk in a single 12 months… It might be like Alex fighting me and Jon Jones in the identical 12 months and [him] knocking each of us out.”
Unsurprisingly, Topuria would even be asked in regards to the FOTY debate after last night’s viral win, but contrary to his typical self-confident demeanor, he’s staying out of the discussion entirely.
“Let’s leave that pick to the fans or to the people involved in that election… In the event that they want me to be the Fighter of the Yr, I’ll be very, very comfortable, but I don’t know – Alex Pereira is there, I’m right there so let’s let the fans determine.”
Whilst there shall be a big amount of recency bias involved, it seems that the vast majority of fans and fighters are siding with the Spanish-Georgian superstar over the Brazilian.
What do you think that; has Ilia Topuria now beaten out Alex Pereira because the 2024 Fighter of the Yr?
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