Be ready to be shocked if you haven’t looked at Raul Rosas Jr.’s recent Instagram post. The 20-year-old bantamweight star met the former featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, for what seemed like a joint training session. However, the fighting community decided to ignore that and instead put the spotlight on the difference in their sizes. Of course, a bantamweight would definitely have a different visual dimension when compared to a lightweight fighter. And while the size difference exists, it didn’t really align with the fight fandom’s expectations.
Not too long ago, ‘El Matador’ dominated the featherweight division and defended the belt once against Max Holloway. This win also made him the first fighter to have knocked ‘Blessed’ out cold. And after his 16th win in a row, Topuria decided to move up a weight category. He intended to challenge the soon-to-be former lightweight champ Islam Makhachev. Now, he’s set to fight Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. That did not change the biggest question about the Spaniard moving up to 155 – that he is much smaller in size compared to the other lightweights. And that’s what baffled the fans when they saw Topuria standing beside Rosas Jr.
It’s worth noting that Topuria stands 5 ft 7 inches tall, while Rosas Jr. is 2 inches taller. But when it comes to muscle mass, the former featherweight champion takes the edge. And that’s why Topuria looked smaller than a bantamweight prospect.
Nevertheless, ‘El Nino Problema’ seemed content with his meeting with ‘El Matador’, as he dropped two pictures of their training session on his Instagram profile with a single red rose emoji in the caption.
Soon, the pictures started travelling beyond Instagram. Championship Rounds and Dovy happened to share the image with their X audience. And right after the post went live, fight fans conquered the comments section and revealed their thoughts.
Smaller than a bantamweight, how will Ilia Topuria fare against Charles Oliveira?
Most of the fans noticed that Topuria looked smaller than Rosas Jr. And based on that, they claimed ‘Do Bronx’ would actually win the headliner bout at UFC 317. One fan weighed in on this and wrote, “nah i think he’s gonna run through charles but why does a 135 pounder look bigger than him?” Another fan added, “Raul is bigger then topuria size and height wise, Charles by sub.” One more fan compared Topuria’s size with that of Oliveira, and commented, “Oliveira is really going to look so much bigger than ilia.” But looks can be deceiving.
Topuria has remained undefeated despite his comparatively small size. He’s fought taller (not necessarily bigger) guys like Max Holloway. The Spaniard packs a powerful punch that not many can take. And as for Oliveira, it’s not just that he’s taller, he’s actually bigger. He put on a decent size after his loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 280. So, this fight may be more evenly matched than a lot of people make it out to be. It might be hard to pick a winner but it’s easy to predict who will look big on fight night.
It didn’t take long for confusion to creep in and make the fighting community wonder why a lightweight fighter looked smaller than a bantamweight prospect. One fan questioned, “How do I explain to my kids that the Bantamweight is the one on the right?” Another fan claimed, “This spanish sausage is smaller than a bantamweight.” In the meantime, fans didn’t back away from praising ‘El Nino Problema’ on getting bigger. One of the comments read, “Damn raul is gaining mass hopefully he stays just as speedy.”
But if you think the fans’ opinion changed on Instagram, you’d be wrong. The sentiments were the same on Rosas Jr.’s IG post. One fan wondered, “Are you too big for the gallon weight or is Tupuria too small for the lightweight?” Another fan questioned, “How in the world does Raul make 135 lmao?” And as the post continued to make runs on the internet, some of the fans even claimed that Rosas Jr. could try out for a lightweight match. A comment read, “You’re gonna be a lightweight lol.”
But what are your thoughts on the size difference between Topuria and Rosas Jr.? Do you think Topuria can manage to defeat Oliveira in their upcoming fight at IFW? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
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