Aljamain Sterling is intrigued by one fight in particular for Ilia Topuria.
UFC Champion Ilia Topuria has dominated across three weight classes in his career: bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight, where he won his second UFC title with a first-round knockout of Charles Oliveira at UFC 317.
A month after, the MMA world is left wondering if anybody can dethrone the undefeated champion, given the current KO streak he’s on with Oliveira, Max Holloway, and Alexander Volkanovski.
Some see #1 contender Arman Tsarukyan as a title threat while others propose former lightweight champ Islam Makhachev, who’s gone on to welterweight, has what it takes to hand Topuria his first loss.
Former bantamweight champion and current featherweight contender Sterling suggests something out-of-left-field for Topuria.
Aljamain Sterling says Ilia Topuria vs. Petr Yan would be ‘great fight’ at featherweight
Sterling went to war twice with Petr Yan for the UFC bantamweight title.
Sterling got his hand raised in both outings, but ‘Funkmaster’ had to deal with the high-level striking of Yan, which nearly cost him his first fight with him at UFC 259 if it wasn’t for an illegal knee Yan threw while he was grounded.
Former champion Yan is arguably the best striker in the bantamweight division and has wins over former two-time champions Jose Aldo, Deiveson Figueiredo, as well as five-round victory over upcoming title challenger Cory Sandhagen.
While weight classes apart, Yan is the same height as the 5’7″ Topuria, and he nearly fought the current UFC lightweight champion in 2018, but fought Jin Soo Son instead.
“You know what would be a great fight? Ilia Topuria vs. Petr Yan,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel.
“That would be a crazy fight.
“I’m actually intrigued by how that would actually go.
“If they were the same size pound for pound type of thing… But even now, let’s say, Yan went up to 45 [featherweight] and Ilia stayed at 45. That’s just a unique fight in terms of the styles. Like, Ilia, yeah, he’s a power puncher, he’s looking to put you out…
“But Yan is so efficient with everything,” Sterling said of his two-time rival.
“It just makes it intriguing. Like, how would that fight actually play out?” Sterling said of Yan vs. Topuria.
Yan recently made it three wins in a row with a unanimous decision victory over Marcus McGhee at UFC Abu Dhabi.
Ilia Topuria’s days at featherweight are likely over
Topuria shocked the world last fall when he announced he’d be leaving the featherweight division behind.
It was a decision Topuria had been weighing for a while and Topuria ultimately relinquished his world title earlier this year, in pursuit of the lightweight title.
Now, a two-division champion, Topuria looks to defend his title and potentially grab a third belt at welterweight if that’s what the future holds.
With that, and the toll the weight cut takes on the body, there’s a good chance Topuria never fights at 145 lbs again.
