Tom Aspinall explains why Ilia Topuria is "the future of MMA" ahead of his title fight against Charles Oliveira

Tom Aspinall had a lot of positive things to say about Ilia Topuria ahead of his highly anticipated title matchup against Charles Oliveira. Aspinall expressed his admiration for Topuria's all-round abilities inside the cage, calling him one of the biggest MMA superstars.

Topuria is set to make his octagon return in the main event of UFC 317 this weekend against Oliveira for the vacant lightweight throne. The Spaniard will be aiming to repeat his spectacular results from last year and become a two-division champion. Notably, he took several jabs at Oliveira before their contest, voicing confidence in his knockout prowess.

In a recent episode of Fight Lab on TNT Sports' YouTube channel, Aspinall opened up about the UFC 317's headliner. The Brit praised Topuria, saying:

''He’s [Ilia Topuria] got devastating power. Great grappling as well, links everything together so well. Great for the sport – obviously, Georgian slash Spanish guy, so he’s mixing up nationalities. For me, he’s the future of MMA. He’s the next step.”

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Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below (via Championship Rounds X post):

Topuria astonished everyone when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 last year, becoming the new featherweight kingpin. The 28-year-old then went on to replicate the strong power in his hands at UFC 308 and became the first fighter to knockout former champion Max Holloway in his first title defense. Earlier this year, he vacated his featherweight title to leave his mark in the 155-pound division.

As for Aspinall, he was elevated to the undisputed heavyweight champion status after Dana White made the announcement at UFC Baku last weekend. This came after Jon Jones' retirement from the sport.

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Ilia Topuria doesn't believe Jon Jones ducked Tom Aspinall

Jon Jones' decision to retire shocked many in the MMA community, who were expecting a heavyweight title unification bout between him and Tom Aspinall.

In a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Ilia Topuria offered his thoughts on the matter, saying:

''Jon has done so many great things in the sport. He fought the best of the best in the last ten years. So, I don’t think he’s ducking anyone. He just wants to retire. He’s tired, maybe, of the game or whatever, and he wants to retire. I don’t think he’s ducking anyone because you can find a guy always that’s [new], ‘He’s the next one [to beat Jones].’ Even if he beats Tom Aspinall, there’s gonna be someone new.''

Check out Ilia Topuria's comments below (38:20):

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Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena