Alex Pereira had pretty much cemented himself as the best fighter of 2024 at the beginning of October. Just two months away from 2025 now, Ilia Topuria’s UFC 308 knockout of Max Holloway has opened up the debate again. Who deserves it more? The active champion or the fighter who faced tougher opponents? This question has been vexing the UFC fandom since this past weekend, so, Chael Sonnen decided to chime in.

On his Instagram, Sonnen uploaded a video where he talked about why he believes Ilia Topuria should be the fighter of the year. He said, “I looked at who’s the number 8 guy at featherweight, and the comparison I was planning to make for you guys is because that’s what Pereira just did. As amazing as he looked, he went and fought the number 8 guy. So what would happen if Ilia did that? And wouldn’t you know, the number 8 guy is Josh Emmett. And we saw them fight, and it was a very dominant contest, and it looked like two guys that should not be that close to each other in the rankings. So if you look at it from that perspective, both of them have two wins. Both of those wins came by way of stoppage. But Topuria, to his credit, in this did have the absolute best guys.”

A fair point from Sonnen. Both Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski are the standards at featherweight, and Topuria did not let them see the championship rounds in their respective title bouts. But neither did Pereira. He needed one round for Jamahal Hill and two for Jiri Prochazka (because he survived the first thanks to the bell). However, neither of them boast a resume like Volkanovski or Holloway and this might steal the spot from the Brazilian.

Pereira extended his undefeated record so far this year to 3-0 with a fourth-round comeback over Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event of UFC 307. Although he was #8, Rountree Jr. gave Pereira his toughest test on the feet since Adesanya. If anything, Pereira showed levels in this gritty battle of will and skill, tapping into elite levels of striking before knocking Rountree Jr. out.

This performance surely made many believe that Pereira would be chosen as the best fighter of the year. But apparently, that’s not good enough for Sonnen. According to the 47-year-old, the featherweight champion has a greater chance of being named Fighter of the Year than ‘Poatan’ because of the difficulty levels of his opponents. And his ESPN show co-host Daniel Cormier agrees.

On his YouTube channel, DC said, “The ‘Fighter of the Year’ conversation felt like it was over. Alex Pereira was the guy that was ‘Fighter of the Year,’ no questions asked. That’s not the case [anymore]. I think that these two wins [for Topuria] singularly are as good as any two wins anybody can have. [Topuria] just beat two of the greatest featherweights of all time. There’s only three. He beat two of them in a calendar year.”

Well, these are surely interesting points made by Chael Sonnen and Cormier. However, it would be interesting to see what Alex Pereira would think of it. This isn’t the first time that comparisons have been made between ‘Poatan’ and the Spanish-Georgian. A few days ago, even Sean O’Malley couldn’t help but draw the similarities between the UFC light heavyweight and the featherweight champion.

Sean O’Malley compares Ilia Topuria to Alex Pereira

Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley was surely left impressed after he witnessed how Ilia Topuria, a man he has talked about fighting in the future, continued his unbeaten streak. Topuria returned to the headlines on UFC 308 pay-per-view, eight months after being crowned featherweight champion in Anaheim at UFC 298. After beating a legend of the division, Alexander Volkanovski, ‘The Matador’ repeated the feat, this time against fellow legend Max Holloway, in Abu Dhabi.

Blessed,’ who holds the symbolic title of the BMF, was knocked out for the first time in his career after being caught with a ruthless left hook in the third round. In a video later uploaded to his YouTube channel, O’Malley reacted to the main event held at the Etihad Arena while drawing comparisons with Alex Pereira. He said, “Ilia just hurt Max bad. Ilia lands a bomb, and Max is still stunned. He’s playing it off good. Oh, left hook! Ilia finishes Max Holloway with a left hook in Round 3.” He further added, “Who, at 145, wants to fight Ilia right now? Ilia’s just so dangerous the whole fight. He’s like a little f****g Alex Pereira. You can’t tell me Islam (Makhachev) vs. f*****g Ilia isn’t a fight you would want to see.”

Rumors of a super fight with Topuria previously centered on O’Malley wanting to move up to 145 pounds to challenge ‘El Matador.’ But while that might have been on the menu had he turned down Merab Dvalishvili’s challenge, O’Malley was ousted from the bantamweight throne within the Sphere last month. But what do you think? Will Topuria get to fight Sean O’Malley in the future? And who is your pick for the ‘Fighter of the Year?’ Let us know in the comments.