I am not saying that he is anywhere near being the GOAT atm. However, he clearly has the making of one. Lets demonstrate this by looking at the three categories of facts from which the inference is justified.
1) Physical attributes: He is a tremendous athlete, something which is needed as the sport evolves. He is super fast, super quick, and very strong. He has elite striking. Obviously his hands might be the best in the UFC atm, but his leg kicks are also very elite. He has elite level grappling, including wrestling and a strong top submission game. He also seems to have a strong chin, this was evident by his fight against Emmet, and by how confident he was that Volk could not hurt him.
2) Mental attributes: I cannot overstate this, but Topurias confidence and calmness is truly mind-blowing. I mean, this was his first main event, going against a P4P great, the consensus best FW of all time, a man in Volk who is undefeated at FW, and yet there was never any doubt in Topuria. Now, we have seen people be cocky and confident and arrogant before. But I cant recall seeing confidence like this before. Just look at his reaction to winning the belt: it was as if he was almost underwhelmed by it because it was such a given to him. To put this into perspective, even Conor cried after his win vs Mendes.
3) Timing: He takes the belt in spectacular fashion from the FW goat. He will likely get the opportunity to defeat the n2 FW goat in Max. He becomes the champion will being undefeated, and very young. Whats more, there is a row of previous gen fighters which he can clear out relatively easy (He outboxes Max and he takes down Yair just like Volk did), as well as a new generation that can't really threathen him (Mosar and Allen clearly seem a lot worse than he is).
Of course there are all type of contingencies which cannot be accounted for: He can get injured, he can get complacent, etc, etc. But in terms of having a good starting point for becoming a GOAT, it is hard to imagine a better one than Topurias.
1) Physical attributes: He is a tremendous athlete, something which is needed as the sport evolves. He is super fast, super quick, and very strong. He has elite striking. Obviously his hands might be the best in the UFC atm, but his leg kicks are also very elite. He has elite level grappling, including wrestling and a strong top submission game. He also seems to have a strong chin, this was evident by his fight against Emmet, and by how confident he was that Volk could not hurt him.
2) Mental attributes: I cannot overstate this, but Topurias confidence and calmness is truly mind-blowing. I mean, this was his first main event, going against a P4P great, the consensus best FW of all time, a man in Volk who is undefeated at FW, and yet there was never any doubt in Topuria. Now, we have seen people be cocky and confident and arrogant before. But I cant recall seeing confidence like this before. Just look at his reaction to winning the belt: it was as if he was almost underwhelmed by it because it was such a given to him. To put this into perspective, even Conor cried after his win vs Mendes.
3) Timing: He takes the belt in spectacular fashion from the FW goat. He will likely get the opportunity to defeat the n2 FW goat in Max. He becomes the champion will being undefeated, and very young. Whats more, there is a row of previous gen fighters which he can clear out relatively easy (He outboxes Max and he takes down Yair just like Volk did), as well as a new generation that can't really threathen him (Mosar and Allen clearly seem a lot worse than he is).
Of course there are all type of contingencies which cannot be accounted for: He can get injured, he can get complacent, etc, etc. But in terms of having a good starting point for becoming a GOAT, it is hard to imagine a better one than Topurias.
