Ilia Topuria has the making of a GOAT

[moreorless87]

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.

Its still early on with him at the top so I would not like to make any firm predictions but yeah I think the possibility is there that he surpasses the three other GOAT candidates at 145.

A potential advantage over Aldo, Max and Volk I would say is superior finishing ability, Max does have plenty of finishes of course(only 1 in the last 5 years though) BUT he tends to do so by overwhelming people with offence. All of them were tough bastards as well not prone to being upset BUT they did all also have mostly long fights which likely resulted in them picking up a lot of mileage fast as champions. Topuria does seem like he might carry on getting the early finishes even as champion and so limit the punishment he takes.

 

[Hdfi]

He has 2 top ten wins and 0 title defenses so far. If he beats 10 more top ten opponents and defends his belt 9 times, then yes.

 

[Nous]

Didn't he call out Conor Mcgregor and say that no one else at FW deserves a rematch?

One of the most important factors in GOAT discussions is an insane number of title defenses

Topuria is an outstanding athlete and fighter, but I think we need to see him clear out his division and rack up a few title defenses first before we can determine if he is even one of the GOATs of the division first

So I think it is a super fair worry that he might become a diva or something, and not fight enough.

However, specifically with regards to his claims about the rest of the featherweight division, I think they didnt look as bad after hearing what he said post-victory: It seemed as if he think that it does not make sense for him to fight people Volk has already beaten given that he considers himself better than Volk, and Volk was so much better than them. Which is why he thinks the fight that makes the most sense is him vs Volk again.

 

[Nous]

Its still early on with him at the top so I would not like to make any firm predictions but yeah I think the possibility is there that he surpasses the three other GOAT candidates at 145.

A potential advantage over Aldo, Max and Volk I would say is superior finishing ability, Max does have plenty of finishes of course(only 1 in the last 5 years though) BUT he tends to do so by overwhelming people with offence. All of them were tough bastards as well not prone to being upset BUT they did all also have mostly long fights which likely resulted in them picking up a lot of mileage fast as champions. Topuria does seem like he might carry on getting the early finishes even as champion and so limit the punishment he takes.

You are correct that a big advantage he has over all of them is how hard he hits. Then I think he has a specific advantage over each of them:

He is physically and mentally stronger than Aldo
He is more well-rounded than Max
He is starting his reign earlier than Alex.

 

[Lee Danger]

he's very good and he delivers more exciting fights than not, but please stop calling every winner the new GOAT.
it didn't work well with Volk and it makes a fighter career worse in hindsight.

 

[moreorless87]

You are correct that a big advantage he has over all of them is how hard he hits. Then I think he has a specific advantage over each of them:

He is physically and mentally stronger than Aldo
He is more well-rounded than Max
He is starting his reign earlier than Alex.

Honestly all three of them had gone though quite a lot before they became champ then as champion they all ended up with either 5 rounders or at least matches that went long. Its still early days of course and things may change but it he can be consistently ending fights relatively early I think that probably helps.

Again its early days, I wouldnt like to say for sure it would hold up but I do think its relatively rarer you get top level fighters who are both very tough AND have such strong finishing ability. A lot of the time you get people like McGregor who are great finishers but if you can whether the storm and pressure them there weaker.