Robert Whittaker doesn’t like Charles Oliveira’s chances vs. Ilia Topuria at UFC 317.
Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) meets Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) for the vacant lightweight title in Saturday’s main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Although Oliveira is visibly the bigger fighter, Whittaker doesn’t see weight playing a factor in this fight.
“Obviously, Charles Oliveira is a weapon of a fighter,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “I’m a big fan of his. Big fan of Ilia as well, but I love Charles. Who doesn’t? Who doesn’t love the story that he has, the heart? He used to be such a quitter in those early days of the UFC and he just stopped quitting. He found something in him and came back with a vengeance all the way to the title to become champion.
“Ilia’s a different beast. I think that a lot of support that’s going toward Charles winning this fight comes from the fact that we don’t know what Ilia is going to look like moving up. I’ve seen a lot of photos circulating of Ilia next to (Raul Rosas Jr.), and when they’re looking at size discrepancies, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
Whittaker is highly impressed with Topuria’s back-to-back knockout wins over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. He rates his skillset very highly.
“Ilia is a weapon,” Whittaker said. “What he did to (Alexander Volkanovski) and what he did to Max (Holloway), two of the best featherweights – Volk being the best featherweight to have ever done it – he starched two legends of the sport. That is unreal. Ilia’s skill set is ridiculous. Charles is phenomenal, as well. He’s super dangerous off his back. Ilia has the grappling to do it. Charles standing, very textbook – but gets hit a lot. Ilia loves scrapping, loves moving on the inside, loves slipping punches to land punches. He’s so good at dirty boxing. I just don’t see where Charles wins this fight against Ilia.”
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