Ilia Topuria is the most marketable combat sports athlete of 2026, according to SportsPro, which published its annual list of the 150 most marketable athletes on October 28. Bloody Elbow broke down the numbers. Topuria landed at No. 41 overall, the only fighter or boxer inside the top 50. Anthony Joshua was the closest name from the fight world, sliding in just outside at No. 52.
The gap is tight. Topuria scored a 61.11 out of 100. Joshua posted a 59.57. The more fun part is who Topuria finished above outside combat sports: Max Verstappen, Novak Djokovic and Harry Kane, whom Bloody Elbow described as a recent Ballon d’Or winner. Tennis star Aryna Sabalenka took the No. 1 spot. Joshua held that same top position back in 2017, the year he beat Wladimir Klitschko to keep his IBF heavyweight title and pick up the WBA and IBO belts.
Here’s how SportsPro builds the thing. It starts with 1,202 athletes, cuts that to 247, then ranks them across 27 drivers grouped into three pillars: brand equity (out of 45), momentum (out of 40) and commercial trajectory (out of 15). Topuria put up 20.16, 33.21 and 7.74. Joshua went 36.55, 21.43 and 1.59. Read that again. AJ’s established brand crushes Topuria’s, but his growth ceiling score is basically a rounding error, while Topuria’s momentum number is the highest of any combat sports athlete on the list.
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The rest of the fight names, per Bloody Elbow:
- Canelo Alvarez, No. 61 (58.45)
- Khamzat Chimaev, No. 62 (58.29), second among UFC fighters
- Alexander Volkanovski, No. 93 (53.20)
- Tyson Fury, No. 100 (52.86)
- Oleksandr Usyk, No. 109 (52.32)
- Max Holloway, No. 136 (48.34)
Volkanovski and Holloway are the two men Topuria beat in UFC featherweight title fights. So he’s out here ranking ahead of the guys he already took belts from. Rude, and very on brand.
The White House asterisk
There’s a big catch. In June, Topuria lost for the first time in his career, dropping his lightweight title in the main event of UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. The way that upset played out has people wondering whether he’ll be the same fighter when he comes back. SportsPro’s evaluation window ran from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, which means the fallout from that loss may not have touched his ranking at all.
As for what’s next, Bloody Elbow has also reported that Volkanovski wants another shot at Topuria before he retires, and that Paddy Pimblett is putting a Justin Gaethje rematch ahead of his feud with El Matador.
My take: this list caught Topuria at the absolute peak of his heat, a guy calling his shots and cashing them, and it froze him there like a screenshot. Next year’s version is the real test. If his momentum score holds after a loss on the biggest stage the UFC has ever built, then the man is a genuine crossover star. If it craters, we’ll know a lot of that 33.21 came from the undefeated record, and the comeback fight becomes the most important marketing event of his career.
