Ilia Topuria: fighter profile — record, titles and rise to the top

A verified profile of Ilia Topuria as of 6 September 2026: a 17-1 record, two UFC titles, career statistics and his standing after the loss to Justin Gaethje.

Ilia Topuria is a Georgian-Spanish mixed martial artist competing in the UFC lightweight division. He is the first fighter in the promotion's history to win belts in two divisions without a defeat on his record. That run ended in June 2026, when he lost the lightweight title to Justin Gaethje.

Key details

Full name: Ilia Topuria (Georgian: ილია თოფურია), nicknamed El Matador
Country: Georgia and Spain — he holds dual citizenship, having received Spanish nationality in March 2024
Date of birth: 21 January 1997 in Halle (Westfalen), Germany; he is now 29
Height: 170 cm according to his official UFC profile; some sources, including Wikipedia, list 173 cm, so the official figure is used here
Reach: 175 cm
Division: lightweight, 155 lb (roughly 70 kg); he previously competed at featherweight
Team: Topuria Team since 2025, before that Climent Club in Alicante; he is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Jorge and Agustín Climent

Professional record

As of 6 September 2026, Ilia Topuria's professional record stands at 17 wins and 1 defeat. According to his official UFC profile, seven wins came by knockout or technical knockout, eight by submission and two by decision. His only defeat came by technical knockout. The UFC Stats database lists the same record and the same breakdown, so the sources do not diverge on this point.

On the official UFC rankings updated on 1 September 2026, Topuria is the number one contender at lightweight, behind champion Justin Gaethje, and fifth in the pound-for-pound list.

The rise to the top

2015 — professional debut on the Spanish regional circuit, followed by a string of submission wins through to 2018.
2018 — his first international outings, including a Cage Warriors bout in Antwerp; the same year he became the first Georgian to hold a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.
2019 — two wins under the Brave CF banner: a submission over Luis Gomez in Bogotá and a knockout of Steven Goncalves in Bahrain.
11 October 2020 — UFC debut, a decision win over Youssef Zalal.
5 December 2020 — a first-round knockout of Damon Jackson.
10 July 2021 — a first-round knockout of Ryan Hall.
19 March 2022 — a second-round knockout of Jai Herbert, earning a Performance of the Night bonus.
10 December 2022 — a submission win over Bryce Mitchell, again with a Performance of the Night bonus.
24 June 2023 — a unanimous decision over Josh Emmett in a bout named Fight of the Night.

Fighting style

Topuria has built his career on two things that show up clearly in his fights: close-range boxing and takedown defence. Official UFC statistics credit him with 4.82 significant strikes landed per minute at 50 per cent accuracy — 502 landed from 1,002 attempted — and 62 per cent significant strike defence. An average of 1.15 knockdowns per 15 minutes indicates how often his punches change the course of a bout.

His wrestling profile is lopsided. His takedown accuracy is 24 per cent (five from 21 attempts), but his takedown defence sits at 95 per cent, which has repeatedly kept fights standing where he is most comfortable. He is also a jiu-jitsu black belt, and eight of his 17 wins came by submission, mostly in the earlier part of his career.

Biggest wins and titles

17 February 2024 — a second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski to win the UFC featherweight title.
26 October 2024 — a third-round knockout of Max Holloway in his first title defence, the first knockout loss of Holloway's career.
April 2025 — he vacated the featherweight title and moved up to lightweight.
28 June 2025 — a first-round knockout (2:27) of Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 for the vacant lightweight belt, making him the first undefeated two-division champion in UFC history.

His only defeat came on 14 June 2026 at UFC Freedom 250, staged on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Gaethje took the title when Topuria's corner stopped the bout after the fourth round, and the fight was awarded Fight of the Night. A note on the date: the official event page on ufc.com lists 15 June 2026 because of the late start time and time-zone conversion, while in local Washington time the event fell on Sunday 14 June.

What comes next

Topuria's next appearance has not been confirmed. As of 6 September 2026 the UFC has announced neither an opponent nor a date, and he remains listed as the number one lightweight contender on the official rankings. Everything published about his return in the weeks since the defeat comes from press reports rather than an official announcement, so it is not treated as confirmed here.