Ilia Topuria is officially the MMA superstar of Europe. Now what?

As promised, Ilia Topuria has now arrived as the new MMA superstar of Europe after capturing the UFC featherweight title.

Before UFC 298, it was pretty much unanimously agreed upon that Ilia Topuria would turn into a massive star overnight should he defeat Alexander Volkanovski. Especially if he were to make it look easy, as he said he would.

”El Matador” said he would finish the champion inside two rounds and did just that, securing the TKO stoppage at 3:32 in the second round to claim the throne and extend his undefeated streak to 15-0.

Since then, the brash Georgian-Spanish fighter has gained over a million new Instagram followers. He collaborated in a post by Real Madrid celebrating his win on the popular soccer club’s IG account with over 150 million followers, a post that has racked up over 2,1 million likes at the moment. He’s also getting massive coverage by mainstream media in Spain and Europe.

Over the weekend, we got probably the biggest tell of what level of superstardom Topuria has already transcended into.

Suited up with his UFC championship belt over his shoulder in proud display, Topuria received a hero’s welcome as he got a big ovation from over 75 000 Real Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Topuria walked out onto the field, shook hands and took pictures with the players before taking a ceremonial kick-off prior to Real Madrid’s La Liga soccer game against Sevilla on Sunday.

Related: Analysis: Rematch or new blood – What’s next for new champ Ilia Topuria?

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He’s certainly a bit cocky and extremely confident, but Topuria doesn’t really seem to force it at all. He just believes in himself and apparently saw all this coming a mile away, now staying cool, calm and collected while soaking it in and enjoying his victory lap.

The Ilia Topuria era is officially here. And it’s about to get hell of a lot bigger if he can keep this championship run going.

With the UFC possibly targeting a title defense in Spain, the question now is who his next opponent should be.

Alexander Volkanovski is looking for a rematch while No. 2 ranked Max Holloway, another dominant former champ, is booked for a lightweight BMF title fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. Brian Ortega just won against Yair Rodriguez, Movsar Evloev is making some noise all while Topuria himself are targeting Conor McGregor, taking shots at lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and getting called out by bantamweight king Sean O’Malley.

This is all exciting stuff, the featherweight division feels very fresh and it’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds as Topuria starts gearing up for his first title defense, potentially headlining a historic first UFC card in Spain.

Next, I’ll list my personal top five choices for Ilia Topuria’s first title challenger.

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5. Conor McGregor, Islam Makhachev, Sean O’Malley or anyone else who’s not an active featherweight

Let’s establish this baseline right away. Ilia Topuria is doing all the right things, promotionally speaking, by calling out Conor McGregor and messing with another pound-for-pound great in Islam Makhachev. However, realistically speaking, we’re looking for a featherweight fighter somewhere in the top 5 to step up and make a run for it.

Champ vs. champ type fights against the Islam Makhachevs and Sean O’Malleys of the world could absolutely happen down the line. But I feel that Topuria needs to really establish himself as a champion first by taking on a legit contender in featherweight division as his first task.

4. And still undefeated (Ilia Topuria vs. Movsar Evloev)

Russian fighter Movsar Evloev is currently ranked at No. 5 in the UFC featherweight rankings. He’s got an even sexier undefeated record than Ilia Topuria, 18-0 compared to the champion’s 15-0, and has won eight UFC bouts which is one more than the Topuria has.

That is all stuff that is speaking for Evloev, with the option of pitting undefeated fighters against each other in a UFC title fight as his main selling point as it’s something that doesn’t really happen too often at this level in our sport.

However, Evloev is a bit boring quite frankly. He has only won by decision in the UFC and holds just two wins against ranked fighters in the current No. 12 Dan Ige and most recently the No. 6 ranked Arnold Allen.

Evloev reminds me a bit of Kamaru Usman before he seized the welterweight throne. Of course, Usman would eventually gain a lot of fans and respect for his tremendous championship run, but he had to fight hard to get there and even took some heat from Dana White along the way as the UFC boss criticised him for a poor showing against unranked Emil Meek.

Usman had to win nine fights in a row to prove himself worthy of a title shot and I suspect Evloev too will have to win at least one more fight before he’s looked at as a serious contender.

3. Ilia Topuria vs. Brian Ortega looks good to me

So what about Brian Ortega? ”T-City” won a pivotal rematch against former interim champ Yair Rodriguez over the weekend, surviving an early onslaught only to turn the tables and sink in a bonus-winning arm triangle to score his first win since 2020.

Ortega has already had two title shots, falling short in memorable wars against both Mas Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. However, the No. 3 ranked contender keeps evolving and could present an interesting challenge for Topuria.

I’m not dying for it, but would definitely not be mad at a Topuria vs. Ortega title fight in Spain.

2. Volk deserves it (should it really be next though?)

Let me just say, Alexander Volkanovski’s next fight should be for the title. No doubt about it. He’s that guy and he deserves the opportunity to redeem himself after such a great title run, especially considering how active he’s been not to mention how he stepped up to face Islam Makhachev on short notice to save UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi last year.

That being said, let’s not rush this. Volk needs to chill and regroup. He’s coming off back-to-back knockouts and there’s no way around that.

So while I want to see Volkanovski have another go, I’d prefer have a fresh challenger step up against Topuria first and have the former champion returning to face the winner at a later date. If he comes back too quick, my level of interest will personally drop as he’ll feels compromised right now. I think he needs to be a little restless, learn to deal with being out of fight camp for a while and then I’m sure he’ll be a dangerous man once he’s 100 precent ready to return to action.

1. Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway would be spectacular

This leaves us with No. 2 ranked Max Holloway, the former champion who established dominans in the division before the rise of Alexander Volkanovski.

While Holloway ended up going 0-3 in title fights against Volk, he’s pretty much wiped the floor with every other featherweight he’s fought the last 10 years and would undoubtably present a new, fresh and interesting challenge for Ilia Topuria.

Holloway is currently booked for a lightweight BMF title fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. In my opinion, I’d like to see him pursue the Topuria fight at featherweight next regardless of the outcome against Gaethje.

Holloway has always done his best work at 145 lbs and he’d just look even cooler as a contender if we were to go after Topuria’s crown as the BMF belt holder. Let’s make this one happen and we’re promised a hell of a show.

Should Topuria defeat Holloway, he’ll immediately become GOATed as featherweight champion.

About the author: Ashah Tafari is a co-founder of Frontkick.online who’s been covering the sport since 2015, including various UFC events as credentialed media. Follow him on Instagram at @ashahtafari and on TikTok at @svenskmma!