November 1, 2024 3:30 pm ET
Joe Rogan thinks it’s time to start out placing Ilia Topuria’s identify in the perfect pound-for-pound listing.
Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) retained his featherweight title when he became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) on this previous Saturday’s UFC 308 headliner in Abu Dhabi.
The unbeaten phenom has now knocked out featherweight greats Alexander Volkanovski and Holloway back-to-back, and Rogan raved about Topuria’s well-rounded skillset.
“Ilia is quick as f*ck,” Rogan mentioned in a current episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “He’s not sluggish in any respect. He doesn’t have any disadvantages. He doesn’t have any weaknesses, man. That’s the factor. That’s why I say he’s the brand new high-water mark. There’s individuals which are considering he’s the perfect pound-for-pound fighter alive.
“There’s a number of dialogue about that on-line. It’s a little bit untimely, particularly with Jon Jones nonetheless on the market, and there are different elite guys nonetheless on the market – Islam Makhachev is one other one. There’s an actual argument that he’s the perfect pound-for-pound man alive, nevertheless it’s f*cking shut. Ilia – he may be the perfect.” Topuria’s first seven skilled wins all got here by submission till he scored his first-career knockout in November 2019 – his closing battle earlier than signing with the UFC. Since then, “El Matador” has fallen in love along with his boxing, scoring knockouts in 5 of his subsequent eight fights.
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