Joe Rogan has made it clear he’s a big admirerer of UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria’s ability on a recent episode of his JRE podcast as he waxed lyrical about the undefeated star’s latest training footage.
The video sees Topuria dropping a sparring partner multiple times with hard body shots, but what really caught his eye was the 27-year-old’s technique and handspeed.
“Ilia Topuria is one of the absolute best fighters in the world, he’s the current UFC featherweight champion and the dude is just f***** phenomenal,” Rogan said on his show.
“But one of the things that’s phenomenal about him is his technique – his technique is so perfect like there’s no fat, no wasted movement; so when the opportunity presents itself, everything is so fast because the technique is streamlined.”
“Look at how he hits the pads, and [Floyd] Mayweather is a great example of that as well, Ilia’s got some of the best hands in the sport, current UFC champion who knocked out Volkanovski, who is maybe the greatest of all time.
“See how he’s moving his head when the guy throws punches, just slipping slightly and the speed man – the f***** speed of it, look at that hand speed, f***** incredible… If you know how difficult that is to do, and you can do it that fast – those are like five, six punches a second.
“He’s got just phenomenal technique, see how those punches – they’re not even talking, when he’s throwing the mitts at his head, there’s no communication; he just sees that hand coming towards him and he’s ducking.”
Ilia Topuria is looking DANGEROUS in new training footage
Dropped his sparring partner multiple times with body shots
YT / @Topuriailia #UFC #MMA #UFC308 pic.twitter.com/JB0owvpZlY
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 21, 2024
After KO’ing Alexander Volkanovski last time out, Topuria will now look for the first defense of his title against another highly regarded striking talent in former champion Max Holloway at UFC 308 on October 26th.
