Alexander Volkanovski answers if Ilia Topuria can knock Islam Makhachev out

Alexander Volkanovski recently expressed his take on whether or not Ilia Topuria has the capability to knock out Islam Makhachev. 'The Great' used his analysis of Topuria's fight game to provide an affirmative answer to this hypothetical question.

The results of Topuria's UFC fights bear good testimony to his dangerous striking skills. The Georgian-Spaniard has finished five out of his eight UFC rivals via TKO, which also includes a victory over Jai Herbert at lightweight.

Topuria's last encounter at UFC 308 had him putting his skills to the test against the seasoned warrior, Max Holloway. MMA fans hail Holloway for his granite chin, which previously helped him maintain the record of never being knocked down in his UFC career.

However, even 'Blessed' failed the toughness test against Topuria. After having a pretty evenly matched first two rounds, Holloway got flattened on the canvas by a left hook from Topuria at 1:34 in the third round.

In his recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Volkanovski analyzed how Topuria would do in an encounter against Makhachev. The Australian considered 'El Matador's' hammer-like striking, and expressed he had enough power to knock out the current lightweight king:

"[Topuria winning via] submission, obviously, I don't see that happening. [But] Can he knock Islam out? Of course he can. He can knock anyone out in these two divisions [featherweight and lightweight]."

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Ilia Topuria agrees to a rematch against Alexander Volkanovski after defeating Max Holloway

Ilia Topuria took on and beat Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 in February to win the featherweight title.

However, there may not be much time left before these two share the octagon once more. Volkanovski made his way into the cage after Topuria's victory against Holloway. While most of these instances end up in some kind of confrontation, Volkanovski and Topuria agreed to their rematch in a respectful way.

Check out Ilia Topuria's in-ring interaction with Alexander Volkanovski below (2:24):