On UFC 317, Ilia Topuria became one of the few hunters who won titles in two weight classes.
Topuria navigated Charles Oliveira in a devastating way to claim the empty lightweight title after he had committed himself in the division by leaving his belt of featherweight.
His incredible run in recent years has led to comparisons between Topuria's Streak and the performance of Conor McGregor, where he first held two belts in the UFC history at the same time.
While 'El Matador' has already switched to his next target with Topuria who wants to arrange his feud with Paddy Pimblett, a UFC legend believes that the promotion made a mistake during his climb so that he could do something that has not been done before.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Chael Sonnen says that the UFC has made a mistake by not allowing Topuria to win the BMF title on UFC 308
In a recent episode of ESPN Mma's 'Good Guy / Bad Guy', Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen thinks about UFC 317 where Ilia Topuria became the lightweight champion.
'El Matador' becomes two -time champion while he remains unbeaten, is incredibly impressive, but Sonen believes that the UFC made a mistake during his rise.
On UFC 308, Topuria defended its featherweight title against Max Holloway, which put 'blessed' in the third round to keep the belt.
Holloway came into the fight as the BMF champion, after he had achieved one of the biggest victories of his career when he took Justin Gaethje at UFC 300.
Sonnen believes that Topuria should have been eligible to win the BMF belt, and claims it would change the conversation around him if he now had three belts.
“A mistake was made and the mistake was made to put Ilia there with the ruling BMF champion and not to set up the belt. That son of AB — should have three belts at the moment and we now have a totally different conversation if he does. The marketing and the posters are completely different if we had it, but we should not follow a tee.
“The way the story is told about Max, everyone loves Max and respects Max and we know how great he was, there is more going on. He was the ruling BMF champion. Ilia Topuria should have two over his shoulder and one around his waist and I really think that was a mistake.”
Ilia Topuria has protected another award after UFC 317
Although he was unable to win a third title last weekend, the knockout victory of Ilia Topuria has seen him a different award instead.
The undefeated star is now at the top of the pound-for-pound ranks after UFC 317 on January 28.
Ilia Topuria is only the 10th hunter in the UFC history to claim the #1 place on the pound-for-pound ranks of the men 🔥 pic.twitter.com/kqd7bktkjw
– Championship Rounds (@champrds) July 1, 2025
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'El Matador' released the former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev from the first place, although that could change if Makhachev is able to win the good -weight title after his decision to go up.
Given his recent series of versions, it is difficult to claim that Topuria does not earn first place.