Ilia Topuria narrowly avoided brutal KO before landing highlight reel ...

Ilia Topuria’s UFC lightweight debut didn’t go exactly to plan as he had to overcome early adversity when he was almost knocked out clean.

Since joining the UFC in 2020, Ilia Topuria has gone on to become one of the sport’s biggest stars and now finds himself near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings.

‘El Matador’ became the featherweight champion in 2024, after Topuria knocked Alexander Volkanovski out at UFC 298, further cementing his stardom when he became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway in his first title defense last October.

It was recently announced that Topuria has vacated his featherweight title and will begin his pursuit of the lightweight title as he continues to eye a fight against Islam Makhachev.

READ MORE: ‘Highly unusual’… UFC legend slams Ilia Topuria for chasing Islam Makhachev fight

Ilia Topuria narrowly avoided defeat in his lightweight debut

Although this will mark the Spaniard’s permanent move up to 155lbs, it won’t be the first time he has fought at that weight during his five-year UFC tenure.

After beginning his career at 145lbs, Topuria moved down to bantamweight during his time with Cage Warriors, even competing for their 135lb title. The 28-year-old won the fight but was ineligible for the title after weighing in at 139.4lbs.

Once he signed with the UFC and moved back up to featherweight, ‘El Matador’ struggled to find fights at 145lbs and took an opportunity to fight Jai Herbert at lightweight at UFC London in 2022.

During fight week, Topuria was otherwise occupied with Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett as the two clashed in the fighter hotel after Pimblett launched a hand sanitizer at Topuria. Since then, Topuria and Pimblett have continued their feud.

Despite the fact that Topuria was dispatching all of his opponents with relative ease, his lightweight debut was anything but simple.

In round one against Herbert, the Spaniard clearly struggled with the size disadvantage and struggled to get his powerful boxing going. Just a minute into the fight, he was hit with a huge head kick which dropped him and sent him into survival mode.

Topuria managed to regain his composure and made it to the stool for the second round after being left bloody-faced.

And then in the early stages of round two, Topuria showcased why he was being highlighted as a guaranteed future champion when he folded Herbert after landing a highlight right hand.

UFC Hall of Famer describes how Ilia Topuria will match up to Islam Makhachev

With Topuria being one of the biggest stars and a champion at 145lbs, his first fight back up at lightweight will likely come against the champion, Islam Makhachev.

That is even though Makhachev isn’t keen on giving Topuria a title shot, claiming that he would need to beat a lightweight contender first.

Despite that, UFC Hall of Famer, Michael Bisping believes that the fight will happen next and has described how he thinks Topuria matches up to the Russian champion.

“I think we’re gonna see this matchup,” Bisping began to explain in a video on his YouTube channel.

“If we just imagine that the wrestling nullifies itself, which I don’t think it would, I think Islam’s wrestling is probably a little bit better… If we look at the striking styles, Ilia Topuria, I favor him as the boxer, Islam Makhachev has got some nice little kicks.

“The problem is with Ilia Topuria and the boxing stance, he’s very heavy on that lead leg, so you’re gonna look for Islam Makhachev to chip away with calf kicks, trying to keep him at bay.

“Either way, I don’t know who would win because both guys are incredible.”