Daniel Cormier has predicted that UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria will become a ‘global superstar’ in 2025 as he continues to establish himself as the undisputed king of the 145lb division.
“You have to beat the prior generation to take from it,” Cormier told MMA Junkie on ‘The ‘Bohnfire’ podcast. “It’s like wrestling. The old champion gets pinned by the new champion to build. That’s why The Ultimate Warrior pinned Hulk Hogan, and Hulk Hogan didn’t like to get pinned. But they needed him to get the rub, and now what Ilia is going to do is take a lot of that shine from Volkanovski and Max – especially if Volk gets a rematch and he beats him again – into what will become a global superstar.”
One way to accelerate his stardom could be to move up to lightweight and challenge for the title there like Conor McGregor did several years ago, but Cormier believes that Topuria may have to commit himself to the featherweight division for the time being, even though that could hinder his ability to get the kind of blockbuster fights he’s looking for.
“I think he’s still got work to do at 145,” Cormier said. “Unfortunately, he’s going to beat the guys that sell early, so he’s going to have to carry Diego Lopes, he’s going to have to carry Evloev to numbers. Because the numbers in the weight class now for the last nine years have belonged to Volkanovski and Holloway. He’s going to have to carry those new guys because they don’t have the cache that these last two had.”
