Kenny Florian thinks Ilia Topuria is the real deal.
‘He Might Be One Of The Few Who Could Challenge Volkanovski’
‘El Matador’ moved to #5 in the featherweight rankings after dominating Josh Emmett over the distance in the main event of UFC Jacksonville on Saturday.
Topuria has received a hefty pour of praise following his near-perfect performance, some of which comes from former UFC title challenger and PFL commentator Kenny Florian, who touts Topuria’s potential to the very top of the division.
“I was kind of waiting for this kind of performance,” Florian said on his podcast. “This is the one where it sells me completely, where I’m like, okay, this is not only a guy that will fight for the belt… he could win the belt. He might be one of the few who could challenge [Alexander] Volkanovski in all those different domains that is martial arts.”
UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski has yet to be beaten in his home weight class of 145lbs. However, Florian says the featherweight title could finally change hands after seeing Topuria’s skills on full display in Jacksonville.
“Beautiful fundamentals and what I like about his movement and balance is the fact he has his feints and movement, everything built in together,” Florian said of Topuria’s skillset. “He’s constantly in a nice rhythm and then he’ll change up that rhythm and throw you off. He can counter you. He can go first, he can go second. His exits are really pretty. Like, he’ll land a shot, he’ll get away and this is a guy, Ilia, who I wasn’t quite sure if he was so disciplined defensively.
“This one against Emmett, he had to be. And it was absolutely that. For Josh Emmett, to me, it seemed like he was winging punches. He was hoping that Topuria was gonna be in a specific spot and he would just throw a huge shot. Topuria was calculating every damn thing that was going out there. How got in, how he got out, he was throwing Emmett off balance or maybe Emmett was throwing himself off balance cause he trying to wing punches so hard.
“But either way, Topuria put on a masterclass and showed that he ha he’s at a different level and he’s ready for the next level,” Florian stated.
Is Ilia Topuria ready for ‘the next level’ against Alexander Volkanovski?
