Ilia Topuria shares kind words with UFC 317 opponent Charles Oliveira

Interestingly, Oliveira and Topuria were able to communicate a bit.

Being from Brazil, Oliveira speaks Portuguese. Topuria, meanwhile, speaks multiple languages. That does not include Portuguese, but he does speak fluent Spanish, which is quite similar to the official language of Brazil.

That allowed Topuria to share some kind words with his upcoming opponent.

“That’s how our sport is,” he said. “It’s never personal. Everyone’s just fighting for their dreams”

Topuria and Oliveira are two of the best fighters in the UFC at present. Topuria is undefeated. He is the former UFC featherweight champion, having won the belt with a knockout of Alexander Volkanovski last year. He never actually lost his belt, and instead vacated it to move up to lightweight after knocking out Max Holloway.

Oliveira is the former UFC lightweight champion. He won the vacant belt with a knockout of Michael Chandler in 2022. He defended the belt once after a submission of Dustin Poirier. He then lost the belt after missing weight for a fight with Justin Gaethje. After beating Gaethje, he met Makhachev for the vacant belt. He lost by submission, but has since 2-1, sandwiching a loss to Arman Tsarukyan between wins over Beneil Dariush and Michael Chandler.