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UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has put money where his mouth is with impressive performances inside the octagon. However, a section of the MMA community has found issues with the 28-year-old's personality.
Veteran MMA journalist Luke Thomas recently criticized such fans in a recent QnA session on YouTube. Thomas called out double standards of fans who defended Bryce Mitchell for his positive comments about Adolf Hit**r, but is against Topuria's personality.
Thomas said:
"I don't understand if you actually like MMA for what makes MMA great, what would be the hold-up against Topuria? Oh, he wrote himself a great note of appreciation on Valentine's Day. Okay, guys. I mean, people were running to the defense of Bryce Mitchell because he wanted to go, or he would be willing to have, a fishing trip with pre-Meth Hit**r. That is an act of, like, we got to run to his defense in the comments."
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He added:
"But Ilia being a goof, a goofball or whatever the f*ck you want to call him, an arrogant goofball but a goofball just the same, that is that necessitates opprobrium of the highest order? Like, get the f*ck out of here. You know, it's been ridiculous since day one. It's aged as poorly as possible, and I think it will continue to age poorly. Even if he loses, he's gonna be relevant."
Check out Luka Thomas' comments below (2:19:43):
Daniel Cormier claims Ilia Topuria should've been 2024 UFC Fighter of the Year
After Dana White announced Ilia Topuria's decision to vacate the featherweight title and move up to the lightweight division, Daniel Cormier addressed the news on his YouTube channel.
White stated Topuria vacated the title because he felt his legacy at featherweight was cemented and weight-cutting was becoming difficult. Cormier thinks that 'El Matador' might've cemented the legacy due to his victories over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
As such, he also felt those two victories should've garnered him the UFC's Fighter of the Year honor last year.
"Ilia Topuria has become the champion and only defended the belt one time. Generally, when someone says, 'My legacy is defined after one title defense,' we would laugh at him. But how do you laugh at Topuria when he beat Alexander Volkanovski to become the world champion by knockout, then he beats Max Holloway to defend and keep that world championship by knockout?"
He added:
"So his process is a little bit shortened because we are all in agreement that there are three guys in consideration as the greatest featherweight of all time, he beat two in one calendar year. That is why I believe he should have been the Fighter of the Year last year. Those two wins were insane in terms of 12 months."
Notably, Alex Pereira won the 2024 Fighter of the Year. He secured victories against Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr. via knockout.
Check out Daniel Cormier's comments about Ilia Topuria below (2:50):
