Ilia Topuria decided to leave her lifelong coach a month before her lightweight title match against Charles Oliveira at UFC 317.
Why did Ilia Topuria change her UFC 317 coach?
UFC 317 is scheduled to take place on June 28, 2025, and former UFC featherweight champion Iliatopria will make her Lightweight debut with the 155 pound title.
Former LW champion Islam Makachev has left the title to move to welterweight after Australia wins gold from Beral Muhammad, and Makhachev’s next fight will be against welterweight title Jacques de Ra Maddarena.
Elmatador is about to win lightweight gold at UFC 317 and is currently in battle camp, with the fight being more than a month away, but the Spaniards have made a big difference.
The knockout specialist is reportedly separated from the lifelong coaching teams of Augustine and Jorge Criment, who run the Criment club in Aracante, Spain.
Topuria has trained in gum for his entire mixed martial arts career.
After accomplishing a lot in a short period of time, Ilia Topria caused a bit of tension between herself and her two Criment brothers by moving from Alicante to Madrid.
Statement from a Spanish outlet, markread: “Both live in different cities, and their multiple professional projects prevent them from working together like they once did.”
The Spanish and Georgia fighters expressed their appreciation to their coaches and thanked their brothers for the time and effort they had to help Topuria reach UFC icon status.
Topuria said: “We are grateful for all these years of mutual learning and growth and we sincerely hope that they are the best in all their projects.”
As the UFC struggles to fight big game, this battle between Topuria and Oliveira is much needed, and this biggest case is in the heavyweight division between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.
John Jones has long told the UFC about his plans, but says the match against Aspinel shows no signs of occurrence, even though it is the only real option at HW.
Who is the new coach at Illia Topuria?
Obviously, if Topuria decides to remove two names from the coaching team, adjustments will need to be made to prepare for the biggest fight of his career.
Reports say the 28-year-old is stuck with his former team, consisting of his older brothers Alexandre, Jess Gallo, Mani Tabanai, Matthias Ribeiro and Javi Kriment.
Jesus Gallo joined Topulia in 2021 to help with strength and conditioning. Javi Clint has been Topria’s batting head coach since 2018, while Matthias Ribeiro and Mani Tavanai were brought to coach BJJ ahead of Topria’s victory Max Holloway.
