Ilia Topuria is on a quest to become a two-weight world champion at UFC 317 on June 28th, 2025, when he faces Charles Oliveira for the lightweight world title. The title is currently vacant but there isn’t really a more fitting opponent for him, as Oliveira was the last man to hold the belt before Islam Makhachev. While Topuria has vacated his own position as the featherweight champion to move up in weight for this fight, Oliveira has spent the last 3 years working his way back to the title. It’s almost certainly going to be a tough match for both men, and they both bring something different to the table too.
They’re both well-rounded fighters of course, but their preferred finishing methods are much different. Topuria has been a knockout artist since he made his UFC debut in 2020 but he has been able to show off some of his grappling and he has actually submitted 8 opponents during his career. Oliveira on the other hand has turned into a dangerous striker over the years but his first love has always been Jiu-Jitsu, and his record shows that. Oliveira has the most submission wins in UFC history and has submitted an incredible 21 opponents during his career, making him one of the most dangerous men in the world on the ground.
Despite that, Ilia Topuria is confident of not only keeping up with Charles Oliveira on the ground but actually having the advantage over him in grappling:
“I feel that I have the advantage in the grappling game also. I feel and I know that I’m better than him even in the ground game. We’ll see how the fight will go, because if I have to submit him, I have all the abilities to do that. I can knock him out, I can submit him, whatever. The only thing I know for sure is that I’m going to knock him out in the first round or submit him in the first round.”
The full interview with Ilia Topuria where he says he has an advantage over Charles Oliveira in grappling was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMAJunkie:
