In combat sports, especially in boxing and mixed martial arts, there’s a phenomenon called ‘stat-padding’. For the unversed, it’s simply a way for a fighter to compete against the not-so-world-class competition to build a stellar record on paper. While there’s not much evidence that suggests that this phenomenon is common, a concerning observation was made by fans on social media about Ilia Topuria‘s brother, Aleksandre Topuria‘s MMA record.

The elder sibling of the featherweight champion is making his debut at UFC 312, and it’s an exciting time for the Topuria household. But at a time, when the MMA community would have hoped to talk about his debut fight, Aleksandre’s MMA record has generated a lot of doubts about his credibility as a top mixed martial artist. This is simply because the level of his opponents he has fought seems a bit amateur.

As per ‘Tapology’, Aleksandre Topuria hasn’t yet fought anyone who possesses enough pedigree for the MMA community to claim that they’re credible contenders. He might have a 5-1 record, but all of his wins have come against fighters who do not have enough experience or have more losses than wins. This raises the question as to how he qualified to be signed with the UFC. Moreover, some of the fighters ‘El Conquistador’ has fought aren’t active fighters anymore.

As expected, fans were quick to chime in on this revelation, and guess what? They compared Aleksandre Topuria’s record with UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov. For the uninitiated, the Dagestani faced a similar predicament regarding his undefeated 29-0 record and that his opponents before the UFC were alleged to be absolute tomato cans. ‘The Eagle’ is 13-0 in the UFC. This means that fans were skeptical about more than half of the opponents the former 155lbs kingpin faced in his entire career. Seems like a radical notion! Well, let’s see what the community is buzzing!

Is Aleksandre Topuria a ‘Khabib wannabe’? Fans react

Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the faces of the sport of MMA, much like Pele and Diego Maradona in soccer or Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in basketball. Despite that, people often claim that he’s padded his MMA record since he fought significantly low-level fighters during the early stage of his career. On that note, many fans on Instagram believe Aleksandre Topuria has taken a similar route in his journey to the UFC. A couple of fans commented, “The khabib strategy,” and, “Bro doing his best khabib impression,” in that regard.

Furthermore, some fans also mentioned how Ilia Topuria tends to imitate Conor McGregor, and in the same way, they hilariously claimed that Aleksandre is copying Khabib Nurmagomedov. “Toptoro is a McGregor wannabe and his brother is a Khabib wannabe.” The claims about him imitating ‘The Eagle’ continued as another fan added, “Khabibmaxxing.” The MMA community even took shots at Ilia Topuria for overestimating his brother.

Nevertheless, some fans appeared to defend Aleksandre, claiming that he has just started his career and has a long way to go. “idk why we expect a guy with only 6 fights and multiple layoffs to have some amazing record. The talent is there when you’ve watched him fight,” an Instagram user stated.

There was another fan who claimed that this observation of Aleksandre’s record had been blown out of proportion. “Only 2 of these are crazy,” that fan stated. Moreover, one fan added that there is nothing alarming about ‘El Conquistador’s record because he’s at the infant stage of his career. “Thats not even padded thats what a normal starting pro mma record looks like.”

Well, everybody has their opinion, so we would also like to know yours when it comes to Aleksandre’s record being a padded one. But in the meantime, let us know how you think he will fare on his UFC 312 debut when he takes on the undefeated Colby Thicknesse. Share your thoughts in the comments down below.