Championship Rounds put the clip out Saturday. “New footage of Ilia Topuria putting in work in Georgia,” the account wrote on X, adding that he was “Training alongside Georgian pro boxer Lasha Guruli.” The video came from Guruli’s own Instagram.
The internet took one look and started grading the sparring partners instead of the fighter. Sportskeeda rounded up fans questioning who Topuria is training with, under a headline built around one particularly blunt reaction: “Ilia training with cans.” I can’t give you Guruli’s record from what’s been posted, and I’d bet most of the people calling him a can couldn’t either. That has never stopped anyone on the internet.
The scrutiny exists because of the result hanging over Topuria. He’s 17-1, ranked No. 3 at lightweight in our rankings, and he’s the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion. He was the first undefeated fighter to win UFC titles in two divisions. The lone loss on that record belongs to Justin Gaethje, and the UFC has spent this week reopening the wound.
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On Friday the promotion released corner footage from that fight. One clip shows Topuria dropping Gaethje with a body shot in the second round while Trevor Wittman, Gaethje’s coach, was smiling in the corner. In another, Topuria’s brother Aleksandre tells him heading into the third round, “Ilia, say calm this round. You’re up 2-0 brother. Work calmly this round. Enjoy your work.” Then comes the clip of Aleksandre consoling him after the loss: “You’re the best. This is a sport. You’re a man and that’s what matters most.”
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That’s the part that matters to me as a numbers guy. Topuria, by his own corner’s math, banked the first 10 minutes and still lost. That tells you nothing about who holds his pads in Georgia. A highlight reel of pure boxing rounds tells you even less about a guy with a 95.2% takedown defense rate, second-best in UFC history, whose problem in his last fight showed up after he was winning.
The Georgia footage is a training clip filmed by one of the sparring partners and posted on his Instagram. Treat it like a scouting report and you’ll lose money. His last fight was June 14, per Cagefile data, and no next opponent has been reported in the coverage around this footage. In the meantime he’s been busy on the other camera, too, starring in a new Montirex ad and photoshoot released Thursday and Friday.
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