What makes Ilia Topuria such a special fighter?
🇬🇪 A film study on the striking of the Georgian matador
The next generation of fighters is always around the corner. With up and comers vying for their shot at the top and the old guard holding on to those top spots, it’s sometimes hard to get those matchups booked. Fighters like Benoit Saint-Denis eventually get that opportunity. Ilia Topuria is one of those fighters who seized that chance at the top. Now he’s set to face off with Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title at UFC 298.
How does “El Matador” set up his finishes? What’s are his grappling capabilities? What makes Ilia Topuria so special as a fighter? Today we are diving into a film study to try to explain just that ahead of his bout with Volkanovski at UFC 298.
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Ilia Topuria: Setting up with the jab
The proper foundation of a striker lies in the jab. It is the key to a good attack, critical to maintaining distance and to disrupt the rhythm of an opponent. Ilia Topuria will use his jab for all three of these things.
When jabbing, Topuria likes to glide in, stick the jab, and if his opponent doesn’t react in a way for him to get to a combination, will exit to the rear. It’s seldom we see Topuria pivot out off of the jab, which is not really ideal, but we have seen it increasingly as he continues to fight. This tells us that Topuria is improving as a fighter and something you want to see from a potential future champion.
The Climent Club fighter uses his jab to cover distance and get into the pocket with his cagemates unless a longer fighter is jabbing with him. Topuria has had trouble in the past with Jai Herbert’s length. There, he was caught being stuck at range and was promptly head kicked. It was the jab and range of Herbert that had Topuria stuck out there. In the second round of that fight, Topuria made the adjustment to double jab to back Herbert up in tandem with the head movement to advance.
In Canelo Alvarez: Perfecting boxing’s basics, we discussed how Canelo Alvarez utilizes the jab to guide where his opponents go, namely to the power hand of Canelo.
From that article: (1) Canelo has Charlo in the corner. Instead of jabbing in, (2) he frames off of Charlo with his lead hand, covering the top of his right, the power shot, to win the hand fighting. Framing is a good practice and controlling the lead hand even better. If Canelo can feel Charlo’s right move, he can get a jump on the slip or counter from his power shot. No punch is without risk and hand fighting is a way to see these shots coming so you can react with the appropriate counter in time. (3) As Jermell Charlo is covered up, Canelo throws the right hand over the top. Charlo will step in to smother Canelo and clinch up to prevent any more big punches. (4) Canelo is having none of this and shoves Charlo back to the ropes to open up again.
Continuing, (5) Canelo will touch Charlo with the jab, (6) fire in the power hand which brings the hands of Charlo up whete (7) Canelo hammers in his signature left hook to the body.
With Topuria being such a fan of the lead hook to the body, something we will go over next, utilizing the jab and power punch in the method Canelo has in the past to set up that liver shot would be a welcome addition to Ilia Topuria’s game.
Topuria’s muleta
A matador will often use his red cape, called a muleta, to draw an attack out of a bull to dazzle a crowd. Ilia Topuria lives up to his nickname, “El Matador,” by doing the same in the cage.
Off the ring of the bell, Topuria is constantly looking to draw an attack out of his opponents. Anyone studying Topuria will notice how he bobs up and down, changing levels, and showing that he could step in. More often than not, he doesn’t. These false starts are feints from Topuria and he’s looking to catch an opponent biting on these feints. They usually do.
More recently, the Climent Club featherweight will implement the shoulder roll to negate an opponent that does bite on these feints in a timely manner.
Topuria displayed this fantastically against Josh Emmett. Josh Emmett is always looking for his right hand. He is the type of fighter that relies on his toughness and power to win him fights. But Topuria was prepared. (1) Topuria read our Emmett’s left hook and backed out with his right hand high and left hand low to protect the body. As Emmett (2) threw the right, Topuria tucked his chin behind the shoulder and rolled with the direction of the punch.
In Sean Strickland and the use of foundational footwork, we discussed how Strickland, despite not fitting the traditional mold, used the shoulder roll well against Adesanya and Cannonier. An excerpt from that column read as follows:
To circle back for a moment, the shoulder roll is simple in concept and hard to implement in practice. The master was, of course, Floyd Mayweather. Protecting the chin, Mayweather tucks it behind his lead shoulder. He will also use this lead shoulder to deflect the power shot from an orthodox opponent. He will roll his shoulder, hence the name, and cause the power shot to go awry. The power hand, Mayweather’s left, stays by the chin. This can parry the jab and blocks any check/lead hooks to come his way. Lastly, the lead hand is down, by the body, to protect the body shot.
If an opponent manages to time his step in or false start, crowding him looking for a body lock or to hammer him in the clinch, Topuria will utilize a technique discussed when we talk about Teofimo Lopez.
In the diagram above, we see (1) Topuria stepping as Emmett times the jab on the step in. Topuria will (2) dip his head and miss the jab. Note the proximity he comes to Emmett’s knee. This has been an ongoing issue for Topuria and fighters like Jai Herbert used the knee as a deterrent for Topuria’s grappling. Digressing, (3) Emmett has crowded Topuria and Topuria will shove Emmett off of him to negate a clinch situation.
This technique was also on display when Topuria fought Damon Jackson who looked to clinch for a takedown. Jackson was an All-American at Missouri Valley College and Topuria, despite being a hellacious grappler himself, denied Jackson the takedowns in this manner.
The last aspect of Topuria’s muleta is his head movement. Topuria adopts a bob and weave tactic, à la Mike Tyson. Seen in most of his recent fights, but most pronounced in the Bryce Mitchell fight, Topuria weaves his way into the pocket with longer fighters to land his heavy combinations.
(1) Moving his head from side to side, Topuria will weave his way into the pocket and look for counters off his motion created. (2) As he leans to his left, the lead hook is loaded up and Topuria shifts his weight forward. On the (3) move to the right, he will often shift backward and this loads up the right hand, specifically the uppercut.
Ilia Topuria uses this movement to look for openings, get behind the shoulder, and set up his combinations.
Combination work: Topuria’s hammer
Putting Ilia Topuria’s work together, we get a fantastic amalgamation of these skills in combination.
Putting Ilia Topuria’s work together, we get a fantastic amalgamation of these skills in combination.
Building off of the last diagram, we see (1 & 2) Topuria moving his head left and right, loading up the lead hook and rear uppercut. (3) Topuria decides on the uppercut off of the right lean. Off of the twist of the hips from the uppercut, Topuria loads up the left hook which (4) he throws and loads up the (5) right hand.
This combination punching has been consistent throughout Topuria’s run to the title since his fight with Damon Jackson. The changing of levels, the addition of the shoulder rolls, and his footwork are the major keys to Topuria’s success.
Topuria’s knockout of Jai Herbert is the most aesthetically pleasing finish of Topuria’s career. As seen as the GIF above, “El Matador” changes levels of his strikes really set the right hook up for the knockout.
With Herbert against the fence, (1) Topuria slips the jab and throws his own. In an attempt to come over the top of the jab, Topuria (2) comes with a right hand and throws his head off the center line and Herbert’s right misses. Next, (3) Ilia Topuria lands a lead left to the body which causes Topuria to lower his hands from the blow. Finally, (4) the right hook finds its home and Herbert is left limp on the ground.
In tandem with his head movement, Topuria’s footwork and cage cutting are among the UFC’s best.
In the Damon Jackson fight, (1) Topuria is throwing a jab and Jackson is looking to move laterally away from Topuria. As he does, (2) Topuria throws an uppercut across his body that is tough to see but is there. Notice Topuria’s footwork (3) as Jackson sets. He’s not followed him around. Instead, Topuria has turned into Jackson and grabbed the lead hand to pull down. He follows behind with (4) a right over the top and a (5) lead hook to the body.
Lastly, we turn to the most recent performance of Ilia Topuria against Josh Emmett. Putting together footwork, the shoulder roll and counter-combination punching, Topuria pulled these types of exchanges off repeatedly.
In the Damon Jackson fight, (1) Topuria is throwing a jab and Jackson is looking to move laterally away from Topuria. As he does, (2) Topuria throws an uppercut across his body that is tough to see but is there. Notice Topuria’s footwork (3) as Jackson sets. He’s not followed him around. Instead, Topuria has turned into Jackson and grabbed the lead hand to pull down. He follows behind with (4) a right over the top and a (5) lead hook to the body.
Lastly, we turn to the most recent performance of Ilia Topuria against Josh Emmett. Putting together footwork, the shoulder roll and counter-combination punching, Topuria pulled these types of exchanges off repeatedly.
(1) As Topuria throws the jab, he will pivot off of the center line understanding that Emmett will almost always look for his right hand. (2) He gets his right hand up to protect from the left hook, and (3) rolls his shoulder with the impending right. (4) With the superior angle and Emmett over committed from the right, Topuria throws the pull counter right, the same Mayweather made plenty of people pay with, and scores an extra (5) lead hook and (6) comes over the top of Emmett’s left with his own right.
Often times it’s as easy as making someone miss one time. We know that Josh Emmett sells out for the right hand and will put himself out of position. By pivoting off the center line and rolling with the right being thrown, Emmett’s right overshoots massively and Topuria is able to get off extra shots in the exchange.
None of this even covers the grappling of Topuria. We don’t go in depth on his cage cutting. These things would require another 2000 words to weave into together. While he’s fantastic fighter all around, the goal of this study is to understand the striking approach Ilia Topuria takes in his fight. It’s the striking that makes him special. He weaves in head movement to combination punching up and down that’s not often seen in mixed martial arts.
The future of MMA is in this type of striking. As the young sport continues to grow, we will see other disciplines’ techniques being picked up as the arms race to the perfect fighting style incrementally improves.