Demetrious Johnson issues definitive prediction for Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira clash: "If nobody gets finished, I'll be shocked"

Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira is fast-approaching, and episode #188 of Tim Welch's Red Hawk Recap podcast produced a prediction. Specifically, MMA legend Demetrious Johnson gave his take on the bout, predicting Topuria to emerge victorious.

Johnson's reasoning is straightforward. Oliveira gets hurt or knocked down in many of his fights, but tends to survive by flopping onto his back, with most of his foes too fearful of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills to follow him to the mat.

"I'm gonna go witht Ilia Topuria. The reason why is because when you look at Charles Oliveira's last couple of fights, when he fought Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler even, he's been hurt in every single one of those fights. He gets dropped and he goes to his back, and then a lot of those guys, even Islam [Makhachev] hurt him on the feet. And a lot of those guys don't follow him to the ground. They allowed him to get back up and he gets back in a gunfight and he's been able to put those guys out.

Only Islam Makhachev followed 'do Bronx' to the ground after dropping him, submitting him. Johnson believes Topuria will do the same.

"Now, I'm betting that Ilia is gonna hurt him, and when he hurts him, he's gonna follow him to the ground and try to finish him like Islam did. Now, Charles Oliveira can win that fight, because we have seen Ilia be hurt before from a taller guy, by Jai Herbert. Jai Herbet was able to rock him multiple times, but Ilia was able to make the adjustments and he ends up knocking out Jai Herbet. So, at the end of the day, I'm going with Ilia Topuria, and I know someone's getting knocked out. If nobody gets finished, I'll be shocked."

Check out Demetrious Johnson's prediction for Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira (43:46):

Both Topuria and Oliveira are confident ahead of UFC 317, with the Brazilian even promising to knock the Spaniard out.

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Others have also predicted an Ilia Topuria win

Merab Dvalishvili's Syndicate MMA coach, John Wood, recently spoke to Sportskeeda's James Lynch in an exclusive interview. During their sitdown, Ilia Topuria was also predicted to beat Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 for lightweight gold.

"We've seen Oliveira have tendencies to get touched in fights, and I think if you're in there with somebody like Ilia, and he touches you a few times, it's gonna be night-night. So, I would lean more Ilia in this one, for sure."

Check out John Wood's UFC 317 prediction (12:50):

Only time will tell, though, if Topuria can capitalize on Oliveira's defensive frailties as expected. Regardless, Oliveira remains dangerous.