The controversy emerges in the MMA in the same context that happened a month ago in football, an annual award. The most prestigious that can be awarded, on the other hand. THE World MMA Awardsawards equivalent to the Ballon d’Or of Mixed Martial Arts, have excluded Topuria from the list of candidates for the category of best fighter of the year.
The review Fighters onlyand, organizer of the prize, excluded the Hispano-Georgian despite his historic victories over Alexander Volkanovski -with which he won the belt- and Max Holloway -first title defense-. Both occurred during a historic 2024 for mixed martial arts in general and for Ilia Topuria in particular.
Application time is the main culprit for the absence. The voting period is not a calendar year, but extends from July 1 of one year to June 30 of the following year. In this case, from 2023 to 2024. This is why Topuria’s recent victory over Holloway in Abu Dhabi. Yes, the victories against Volkanovski with which he lifted the belt are included.
Because of this, Ilia was left out of a cast made up of other notable names in the industry. Alexandre Pantoja (UFC flyweight champion), Alex Pereira (UFC light heavyweight champion), Islam Makhachev (UFC lightweight champion), Dricus Du Plessis (UFC middleweight champion) and Renan Ferreira (former PFL heavyweight champion).
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*The application period was from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.*
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Topuria’s absence generated great controversy among Spanish MMA fans. Many consider that the temporal criterion used to draw up the list of candidates is not representative of overall performance fighters during the year.
Daniel Cormierindustry legend, was also against the exclusion of Ilia. “The fighter of the year conversation seemed to be over… but Topuria just defeated the two best fighters of the previous generation. He just beat two of the best featherweights of all time. Ilia is the fighter of the year. In my opinion, there is no doubt about it,” he concluded.
