‘El Matador’ Ilia Topuria Boasts Perfect 17-0 MMA Record As Latest Two-Division UFC Champion

As the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion and former featherweight king, we decided to take a deep dive into the career of Ilia Topuria.

Read on to find out more about his the Ilia Topuria record, his full MMA resumé and how many finishes he has as one of the biggest stars in the sport of MMA today.

Ilia Topuria Record

Ilia Topuria turned professional back in April 2015 with a debut victory in Valencia, Spain. Since then, Topuria has had another 16 professional MMA fights, winning each and every one of them.

Despite only having had 17 fights, Topuria’s career has been nothing short of magnificent to date. The Spanish-Georgian MMA phenom boasts a perfect record of 17-0.

Of these 17 victories, he has won 15 of them inside the distance. ‘El Matador’ has eight submission wins under his belt, as well as seven big knockouts. His career up to now has been sensational, and he has barely even got started.

Three fights ago, Ilia Topuria, who boasts a $1m+ net worth, became UFC Featherweight Champion at the first time of asking as he emphatically stopped long-reigning king Alexander Volkanovski for his 145-pound strap at UFC 298.

Topuria was understandably the underdog with the best UFC betting sites to become UFC champion at the first time of asking. Topuria became the first man to ever defeat ‘The Great’ at featherweight in the UFC, which he did in sensational fashion with a quite exquisite knockout.

He then emphatically stopped former champion Max Holloway, the first person to ever knock ‘Blessed’ out, in the first defence of his 145-pound world title. After that, he became the latest two-division UFC champion with title success up at 155-pounds.

Now, as the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion and latest two-division champion, Ilia Topuria has the world of MMA at his feet.

He is also the second most followed UFC fighter on Instagram, just behind Conor McGregor. He really is a special talent inside the octagon and a popular name outside of it too.

The Ilia Topuria Record In MMA Is A Perfect 17-0 With 15 Stoppages

As previously mentioned, Ilia Topuria made his professional MMA debut around 10 years ago. He made the perfect start to his career by winning via submission in the very first round of the contest. Topuria then had seven more fights as a pro MMA fighter before signing a deal with the UFC.

‘El Matador’ came into the UFC with quite the reputation. He was signed as an 8-0 upcoming star, with all eight of his wins coming via stoppage. The Spanish MMA star made his UFC debut back in October 2020, winning the fight via unanimous decision and kickstarting his career in the UFC.

UFC President Dana White threw Topuria in at the deep end from the get-go, getting him to step up fight on fight. His second fight in the UFC came just two months after his first, where he knocked out Damon Jackson in Round 1 of their 145-pound contest.

Next up was Ryan Hall for Ilia Topuria, who’s wife Giorgina Uzcategui Badell has always been in his corner. Again, the 28-year-old won the fight in the very first round. This meant he won the fight via knockout once again, extending the Ilia Topuria record to 11-0 with three knockouts and seven submissions.

After Hall came another big step up against Jai Herbert. Topuria once again rose to the occasions, winning the fight via knockout in the second round to silence the pro-Herbert British crowd. He then defeated Bryce Mitchell via triangle choke at UFC 282 in Las Vegas, well and truly putting the world on notice.

Next up was UFC veteran Josh Emmett, who himself had big title aspirations and who was on a great run. Ilia Topuria defeated Emmett via unanimous decision, earning himself a shot at UFC gold in the process.

Ilia Topuria’s UFC Record Is 9-0 With 7 Finishes

Then came Ilia Topuria’s crowning night as he defeated Alexander Volkanovski to claim the UFC 145-pound strap in emphatic style at UFC 298.

Topuria stopped Volkanovski in Round 2 of the bout, knocking the Aussie unconscious and becoming the first man to ever beat ‘The Great’ at featherweight. Talk about making a statement, ‘El Matador’ made one of the biggest of the lot!

In his first defence of the UFC Featherweight Title, Topuria then became the first man ever to knock Max Holloway out. ‘El Matador’ defeated Holloway via KO in Round 3 of their main event bout at UFC 308, defending his UFC Featherweight Title for the first time in the process.

Last time out was yet another monumental victory for Topuria. This time he wrote his name into the history books as the latest two-division UFC champion. He did so by knocking out former champion Charles Oliveira in the very first round of their UFC 317 main event for the UFC Lightweight Title.

That three fight knockout run against Volkanovski, Holloway and Oliveira is undoubtedly one of the best title runs in history. That takes us up to now in the career of Ilia ‘El Matador’ Topuria. The Spanish-Georgian MMA phenom is something rather special, of that there is no doubt.

It remains to be seen who Ilia Topuria’s next fight will be against following his latest victory. A showdown with popular Liverpudlian Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett could be next, as could a 155-pound showdown with #1 contender Arman Tsarukyan.

‘El Matador’ is widely regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound UFC fighters on the entire UFC roster right now and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.