Former UFC champion was ‘shocked’ by Ilia Topuria’s KO over Charles Oliveira

Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was shocked by the nature of Ilia Topuria’s knockout win over Charles Oliveira.

As we know, Ilia Topuria is rapidly turning into the biggest star in mixed martial arts. In addition to his heroics down at featherweight, he’s now become a two-weight world champion after knocking out Charles Oliveira in his last outing. As you can imagine, that was enough to raise quite a few eyebrows – even from those who were previously doubting him.

RELATED: Charles Oliveira explains what he should’ve done differently against Ilia Topuria

At this point, Topuria vs just about anybody would be a big draw. He has a huge fanbase in Spain, he’s becoming bigger by the day in the United States, and he’s still just 28 years of age. Who knows where he could be in just twelve months’ time and beyond that, where he could be in a couple of years?

One man who took real notice of what Topuria did was Eddie Alvarez. In a recent interview, he stressed how special ‘El Matador’ really is.

Alvarez’s view on Topuria vs Oliveira

“Everybody knew Ilia was going to put Charles down,” Alvarez told Helen Yee. “I didn’t know he was going to put him out like that. So yeah, I was shocked.”

“When you look at the last three guys…Volkanovski, Charles, Max Holloway — these are legends back to back that he’s knocking out,” Alvarez said. “The guy’s special, man. He’s special.”

Quotes via MMA News

While he may not have won everyone over just yet, Topuria could be on his way to becoming one of the all-time greats.

What do you believe Ilia Topuria can accomplish between now and the end of his mixed martial arts career? Let us know your thoughts on this and what’s next for him, BJPENN Nation!