How Topuria’s victims tell the true story of the Matador

Ilia Topuria doesn’t choose easy opponents. He fights the best, and he beats them – usually before time runs out. Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira all fell to him inside the distance, and all three have since come back to win again. The latest was Oliveira, the Brazilian who suffered the most devastating knockout of the three.

Last weekend, sharing the card with Joel Álvarez at UFC Rio de Janeiro, Oliveira returned to winning ways. Less than four months after Topuria had knocked him out cold in the first round – at just two minutes and 27 seconds – in their lightweight title bout, the Brazilian was already back in action. Critics had said it was too soon, that he was finished, even that he should retire. Oliveira himself had briefly considered it. But he silenced everyone.

Do Bronx submitted Mateusz Gamrot in the second round, the Polish fighter ranked eighth in the lightweight division and the last man to defeat Arman Tsarukyan. He did it in front of a roaring home crowd that erupted with joy. Oliveira, a former lightweight champion and the record-holder for the most submissions in UFC history, remains one of the most beloved fighters on the roster – and one of the most dangerous. When Topuria beat him, many downplayed the victory, arguing that Oliveira’s time was over. At 35, he’s proved them wrong.

Holloway and Volkanovski, his other fallen rivals

Oliveira isn’t the only one who showed his career was far from over. Alexander Volkanovski, Topuria’s first major scalp, did the same. Many had questioned the Spaniard’s win, pointing out that the Australian had lost twice in a row to Islam Makhachev at lightweight – the latest by a devastating KO just three months earlier. Yet after falling to Topuria, Volkanovski bounced back in style, defeating rising star Diego Lopes by unanimous decision to reclaim the featherweight title.

Max Holloway followed a similar path. The Hawaiian, who had never been knocked out before, suffered that fate for the first time at Topuria’s hands during the Spaniard’s first title defense. But Holloway too came back strong, defeating one of the UFC’s biggest names, Dustin Poirier, in the American’s retirement fight by unanimous decision.

All three of Topuria’s victims remain at an elite level, a fact that only magnifies the magnitude of what the Matador has accomplished – and continues to accomplish.

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