Aleksandre Topuria would already have a rival to return to the octagon. The Hispanic-Georgian would be preparing his third appearance in UFC in front of the Mexican Santiago Luna the event that the company will celebrate the next 21 November in Doha, Qatar.
The confrontation must still be treated with some caution until UFC the official incorporation to the cartel, but the fight has already begun to circulate as one of the new pairings planned for UFC Doha.
Topuria would arrive with a professional record of 7-1 and with the opportunity to continue building your own path within the cockweight.
Your landing on UFC was inevitably accompanied by the enormous figure of his brother Ilia, but Aleksandre has been demonstrating that his career needs to be analyzed separately. His proposal is different: pressure, a lot of physical intensity, good hands and a base of grappling that allows you to compete in different phases.
Now you'll have a particularly interesting test ahead of you.
Santiago Luna would reach the match with a record of 8-1 and with much more attention around his name than when he first appeared on radar UFC.
Mexicans also represent a confrontation with a simple narrative to sell for Hispanic audiences: Spain versus Mexico within one of the most deeply talented divisions of the entire company.
Luna had already shown interest in facing Aleksandre earlier, so the possible pairing also does not appear out of the blue.
Sportfully, the fight makes quite a sense.
Topuria is still in a construction stage within UFC. With 30 years is not an extremely young prospect to which the company can develop for five seasons, but it also does not need to be immediately launched against the ranking.
Needs activity and rivals able to force you to teach new parts of your game.
Moon fits perfectly at that point.
The Mexican also has something to prove after suffering the first defeat of his professional career in front of Bryce Mitchell. Until then he had built a virtually perfect route, but faced an experienced rival and with a grappling The first level showed the enormous leap that exists when entering certain areas of UFC.
That makes the fight against Topuria an important opportunity for both of us.
Aleksandre can add to his record a victory over a young fighter who has already received exposure within the company and continue to progressively approach higher level rivals.
Luna can prove that the previous defeat was simply part of its development and achieve a triumph with quite a repercussion among the Spanish-speaking public.
There is also pressure around Aleksandre.
Share last name with one of the biggest stars in UFC guarantees attention, but also causes comparisons that would probably be unfair to any fighter.
Ilia came to the company and practically didn't stop moving forward until she became champion.
That tour is exceptional.
Aleksandre needs to build his fight-to-fight.
Yes, finally UFC confirms the confrontation for the 21 November, Santiago Luna will be exactly the type of rival that can help you discover where you are currently.
It's not yet a fight for him ranking.
It doesn't need to be either.
For Aleksandre Topuria, UFC Doha can become another important step towards achieving something that is probably much more valuable in the long term: to stop being presented only as Ilia's brother and start building a completely proper name within the ketagon.