Ilia Topuria's Unbeaten Road to the White House | UFC Freedom 250

Each of these assignments were well-designed pairings that provided a different test for the rising star, and he passed them with flying colors, showing that he was ready to face the top tier of talent in the featherweight division.

BATTLE OF PROSPECTS

Another time-honored matchmaking tradition is pitting two up-and-coming talents against one another early in their respective climbs when a loss isn’t debilitating but a win pushes the victor further into the thick of the divisional chase.

Topuria’s version of that fight came at UFC 282 when he was paired off with Bryce Mitchell, who rode six-fight winning streak to climb into the top-15. Most viewed the matchup as a clash of styles, with Topuria’s quick and powerful boxing stacked up against Mitchell’s grappling. While Topuria definitely held an edge on the feet, he showed he was more than capable of hanging with Mitchell on the ground as well. Mitchell found control in the first round, but Topuria hurt him on the feet early in the second before dragging him to the canvas and clamping onto a fight-ending arm-triangle choke.

This was the win that made all those who had remained skeptical about Topuria’s talents really sit up and take notice.

FIRST MAIN EVENT TEST

Here’s all you need to know: Volkanovski is still undefeated in the division outside of than his fight with Topuria and has reclaimed and successfully defended the featherweight title. Holloway, on the other hand, won 14 featherweight fights in a row before running into Volkanovski, and won each of his four fights against everyone not named Volkanovski before falling to Topuria at UFC 308. Excluding their individual losses to Topuria, Volkanovski and Holloway are a combined 35-6 in UFC featherweight competition with their championship trilogy accounting for three of those losses.

Circumstances be damned — Topuria beat two of the best fighters in the history of the division to win and successfully defend the title, period.

LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPION

You have to appreciate the moxie of the current lightweight champion, who announced he was relinquishing the featherweight title on February 19, 2025, in hopes of securing a bout with then-champion Islam Makhachev. He had no assurances it was going to happen, but he still went ahead and gave up his title anyway. Makhachev eventually made a similar announcement, moving up to welterweight in order to challenge for a second title there, resulting in Topuria facing Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight belt in the main event of UFC 317.

Topuria forecasted a first-round finish of the Brazilian former champion, and just before the midway point of the opening round, he connected with a combination of hooks that put Oliveira on the deck and earned him a second UFC title.

The back-to-back-to-back stoppage wins over Volkanovski, Holloway, and Oliveira is one of the best three-fight runs in recent memory — maybe all of UFC history — and to possibly add to it by toppling an all-time great like Gaethje to close out one of the most historic events of all time only further illustrates why Topuria currently stands in a league of his own.