June 28th featured two major combat sports events. On one hand, YouTube-star-turned-boxer Jake Paul faced off against 39-year-old former champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. On the other, former UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria stepped into the Octagon to battle ex-lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant 155-pound title at UFC 317, held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Even though the Paul vs. Chavez Jr. fight created a new record for gate revenue in the venue, Mike Tyson’s son, Amir J. Tyson, seems to have been impressed by only ‘El Matador’ Topuria’s performance. And for good reason, Chavez Jr. was gun-shy throughout the fight, only firing his shots in the last couple of rounds of the bout. Paul, on the other hand, relied mostly on his jabs and one-twos to win a unanimous decision, falling to deliver the knockout against an out-of-prime Chavez Jr. This begs the question: What did Tyson’s son have to say?
Amir shared a clip of Ilia Topuria’s devastating knockout win over Charles Oliveira on his Instagram story, captioning it with a string of fire emojis, “.” The Georgian-Spanish phenom had confidently predicted the outcome beforehand, declaring, “I’m gonna take his lights out in the first round.” And true to his word, that’s exactly what he did.
Credits: IMAGO
Oliveira tried to lock in a leg submission on the ground, but Topuria expertly reversed the position, got back to his feet, and unloaded a barrage of strikes. At just 2:27 into the first round, he connected with a clean right hand, quickly followed by a thunderous left hook that dropped the former champion like a stone.
According to Tapology, UFC 317 drew a crowd of 19,800. Meanwhile, the attendance for Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. remains unconfirmed—though the event broke the gate record at the Honda Center (capacity: 18,336), it still fell short of the numbers at T-Mobile Arena. Interestingly, Tyson’s son isn’t the only one celebrating Toporia’s dominant win.
Islam Makhachev celebrates after Ilia Topuria defeated Charles Oliveira
Former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev offered a surprisingly respectful nod after Touria knocked out Olivera. Despite months of online jabs between the two, Makhachev took to Instagram with a simple yet meaningful post, “We celebrate,” alongside a photo of Khachapuri, a traditional Georgian dish.
Credits: IMAGO
The gesture from Makhachev appeared to honor Topuria’s heritage while acknowledging his performance. Topuria became a two-division UFC champion with the victory, adding Oliveira to a highlight reel that already included knockouts of Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. Makhachev had priviously vacated the belt to pursue a challenge against Jack Della.
He had also dismissed the hype surrounding Topuria’s rise. But after UFC 317, his tune seems to have changed—if only slightly. Meanwhile, calls for Makhachev to be brought back to the lightweight division are growing louder, so a potential Topuria vs. Makhachev can be set up.
Having said that, it seems Mike Tyson’s son chose to watch UFC 317 over the Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout—and he was clearly impressed by Ilia Topuria’s performance. Which fight did you tune into?
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