Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has declared that the UFC’s new lightweight champion Ilia Topuria has now reached superstar status after his knockout victory over Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 317 on Saturday night.
“He’s up there with Jon Jones,” O’Malley declared on his YouTube channel. “Knocked out Volk. Knocked out Max. Knocked out Charles. F**king knocking out Volk, knocking out Holloway then knocking out Charles is f**king insane. Ilia is a f**king superstar.
“Ilia’s just that f**king good. He landed a clean right hand. The right hand knocked him out. The left hook just made it f**king worse. Holy sh*t. That was crazy. Charles gets hit in a lot of his fights. That was just Ilia being that f**king good. That was f**king insane. Just sat on a right hand, left hook.”
O’Malley also declared that, “Islam vs. Topuria needs to happen,” but then appeared to get 100% on-board with the idea of the new lightweight champ fighting Paddy Pimblett instead.
“Ilia vs. Paddy is the fight to make,” O’Malley declared. “It’s the fight to make, simple as that. Ilia vs. Paddy, 100%, that’s the next fight if it’s not going to be Ilia vs. Islam.”
