Ilia Topuria Or Alex Pereira?

The discussion about which fighter deserves to be the UFC Fighter of the Year for 2024 is around two men, Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria. One of these competitors deserves the award more than the other. I break down the pros and cons of each fighter’s 2024 and offer my thoughts on the 2024 UFC Fighter of the Year.

UFC Fighter Of The Year 2024: Ilia Topuria

Ilia Topuria (16-0) entered 2024 with a 14-0 record. His only fight in 2023 was a “Fight of the Night” bonus-winning unanimous decision victory over Josh Emmett. The victory moved Topuria’s record to 14-0 and put him in place to face UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

Topuria vs. Volkanovski went down in February 2024. The fight occurred four months after Islam Makhachev handed Volkanovski the first knockout loss of his UFC career. As the fight was for Makhachev’s UFC lightweight crown, Volkanovski’s belt was not up for grabs.

Heading into that fight, Topuria told anyone who would listen that his UFC 298 main event fight against Alexander Volkanovski would be easy work. The undefeated Topuria was sure he would walk away from the Honda Center with the UFC featherweight title that Volkanovski won in December 2019 with a decision over Max Holloway. He did just that, knocking out Volkanovski at 3:32 of the second round.

Topuria was patient and composed early in the fight. He racked up some nasty calf kicks, which served to slow the champion and perhaps limit his stance switches. He also employed a lot of feints while fighting behind a high guard.

I won’t say that Topuria “gave away” the first round, but he was not aggressive. It almost felt as if he used those first five minutes to pick up information on his opponent’s tendencies, one of which was how Volkanovski backed out of striking exchanges.

Then, with the clock ticking down in the second round, Topuria backed Volkanovski to the cage, giving him no escape route. That’s when Topuria landed a powerful right that put Volkanovski down and out.

The fight was just the seventh outing of Topuria’s UFC career, which began in 2020.

In October, Topuria faced another all-time great in the UFC’s 145-weight division, Max Holloway, at UFC 308.

After the fight, which Topuria won by knockout in the third round, I wrote:

Topuria’s pre-fight confidence can come off as cockiness, but Topuria has delivered on his promises. He did that again on Saturday when he knocked out former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the third round.

Topuria has the type of power that most UFC featherweights do not have. He came into UFC 308 with four knockouts in seven trips to the Octagon. He made it five knockouts in eight UFC bouts when he knocked out Holloway.

Topuria never got frustrated or flustered with Holloway’s volume while he fought behind an active jab. That patience paid off when Topuria found his opening to land a right that staggered Holloway, after that, he forced the ex-champ to the fence where he dropped Holloway beforee finsihing him with ground strikes.

Topuria looked excellent in keeping his undefeated record intact.

UFC Fighter Of The Year 2024: Alex Pereira

Alex Pereira (12-2) began 2023 by losing his UFC middleweight title to Israel Adesanya by knockout. In July, Pereira followed that setback with a win over former UFC light heavyweight title holder, Jan Błachowicz, in his UFC debut at 205 pounds. He finished the year by knocking out ex-UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jiří Procházka at UFC 295 to claim the vacant UFC 205-pound title.

Pereira made his first defense of his crown in April when he knocked out (another) ex-UFC light heavyweight champ, Jamahal Hill, in the first round of their UFC 300 matchup. Pereira showed his power is on another level, when he finished Hill 3:14 into the first round of the main event of UFC 300.

In June, on very short notice, the UFC called on Pereira and Procházka to headline UFC 303 when the Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler fight fell off that card.

After the bout, which Pereira won via a knockout 13 seconds into the second stanza, I wrote:

Pereira showed that his first win over Prochazka wasn’t a fluke. The UFC light heavyweight champ is a fearsome fighter who packs a lot of power in his strikes, but he’s also an extremely focused competitor who doesn’t let anything bother him.

Pereira effectively scored two knockouts on Saturday night, blasting former champion Jiri Prochazka to the mat at the bell to end the first round and then sending him right back down in the opening moments of the second round with a head kick.

We don’t know what comes next for Pereira, but rest assured, fight fans should circle the date on their calendars.

We found out what was next for the champ in August when the UFC booked Pereira against Khalil Rountree Jr for the main event of UFC 307, which took place on October 5. Pereira outclassed Rountree, putting a beating on his opponent before scoring a fourth-round TKO win.

Pereira picked up his third UFC title defense of 2024 on Saturday night. Pereira let his opponent, Khalil Rountree Jr, tire himself out in the early going of the fight while simultaneously slowing him with powerful kicks to Rountree’s lead leg. Pereira picked up the pace in the third round, fighting very effectively behind his jab. That jab opened up several nasty cuts around Rountree’s eye and on the bridge of his nose. Those blows hurt Rountree, and once Pereira had Rountree fading, he picked him apart with precision and power, forcing the referee, Marc Goddard, to stop the fight in the fourth round. Goddard could have stopped this much sooner.

UFC Fighter Of The Year 2024: The Winner Is?

The battle for UFC Fighter of the Year comes down to a few things: Quality of competition, schedule, and how much stock one puts into “saving” events for the UFC.

I’ll get the third one out of the way first because I put zero stock in “saving” events for the UFC, which one could argue Pereira did at least for UFC 303 and UFC 307 by agreeing to take fights on shorter notice than optimal.

Pereira did step in on short notice for those cards, but so did his opponent, so the fight was less than ideal but fair. Plus, “saving” a fight card should have no bearing on “Fighter of the Year,” outside of a pat on the back from the UFC for helping them sell some pay-per-views.

Pereira was more active, there’s no way to argue that, but his quality of opponent fell well short of Topuria’s.

Topuria faced two of the best to hold the UFC featherweight title in Volkanovski and Holloway, and he knocked them both out. One could argue that both men are on the downside of their careers, but that argument doesn’t hold much water. Even if that is true, the slide for both men has just begun. Plus, Topuria knocked them both out, something that no UFC fighter had ever done at 145 pounds. For Holloway, the knockout loss was the first of his career.

Pereira looked great in his three wins, but no one will ever put the men he defeated in the conversation for best UFC light heavyweights, even if two of those fighters held UFC gold.

Ilia Topuria is the 2024 UFC Fighter of the Year.