Ilia Topuria Sends Bold Message to Charles Olivera Ahead of UFC 317
Ilia Topuria Sends Bold Message to Charles Olivera Ahead of UFC 317 originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
International fight week is underway, with one of the most anticipated fights of 2025 taking center stage this Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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UFC 317 is headlined by former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria and former lightweight champion Charles Olivera, where they will compete for the vacant lightweight title. As the pay-per-view gets closer, Topuria's confident trash talk is heating up.
He appeared on 'The Ariel Helwani Show' yesterday, breaking down the matchup and he's expecting a massive performance because of their respective styles.
"I'm going to finish him in the first round. He walks forward, this is all I need. The time that it takes me to knock out my opponents is the time that it takes me to close the distance because they run away. They run, they move side to side, and once I close the distance and I go with my combinations, I knock them out,' Topuria said.
'But with Charles, I'm not going to need to close the distance because he walks forward. This is all I need to take his lights out. Just try to stay in the middle of the Octagon. Just try to do that, and you're not going to see me coming."
Olivera has the most wins by finish in UFC history with 20 and is coming off a dominating victory over Michael Chandler last November. Despite the Brazilian's accolades, Topuria believes he's experienced similar circumstances in previous fights.
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"You can never count him out because he's a dangerous guy," Topuria said. "He has the most finishes in the UFC's history. But I have faced those kind of situations many, many times, with [Alexander Volkanovski], with Max Holloway. No one could beat them. No one could knock them out. And they always had this thing in their mind, like, 'Oh, I faced this guy and this one and that. No one could knock me out.' You never faced me. You never faced someone that skillful like me.'
Topuria's last two wins came against former champion Max Holloway and current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, and he finished both of them brutally. He's always possessed extreme confidence, in a similar way to Conor McGregor, but Topuria trusts his skills first.
"This is what I've been saying for a long time,' Topuria said. The skill development I'm bringing to this sport, they've never felt it, they never saw it. So this is what's going to happen with Charles. He thinks that he has some opportunities, but the reality is that he [does] not. The only thing he has to do is show up, and I'll do the rest."
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.
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