There could be no better storyline between Colby Thicknesse and Aleksandre Topuria than both arriving in the UFC on the same night, facing one-another, and representing teams with a built-in rivalry.
Topuria’s brother Ilia, after all, had been the made who defeated Thicknesse’s teammate Alexander Volkanovski to claim featherweight gold in the UFC. Making Aleksandre and Colby’s debut at UFC 312 that much more interesting.
Thicknesse, it should be pointed out, was a short-notice fill-in for Cody Haddon.
Round one began with Topuria applying heavy forward pressure. A takedown attempt and a flying knee forced Thicknesse to retreat. Thicknesse quickly adjusted, trying to counter Topuria’s relentless pressure, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. Topuria landed some solid body shots, likely aiming to slow Thicknesse down. Thicknesse focused on maintaining distance, throwing a barrage of kicks to keep Topuria at bay, and was ahead on volume early in the round. Although Topuria was coming forward, he wasn’t throwing much at first. When he did, it was impactful, landing a massive overhand right that rocked Thicknesse. Thicknesse recovered quickly, but just before the round ended, Topuria landed a suplex. Despite Thicknesse landing more strikes, Topuria had the bigger, more impactful moments.
In round two Thicknesse was focused on keeping the fight at the kickboxing range, throwing a plethora of kicks. Topuria was loading up with everything while Thicknesse was constantly giving a lot of looks. When Topuria was landing he was getting a reaction, particularly with leg kicks and the right hand. The left leg of Thicknesse was actually giving him issues. Topuria wasn’t doing a good job of finding his range. When he would land it was one shot at a time. Thicknesse mixed it up better this round with his kicks, straight punches, movement, and takedown attempts.
In the final round the fight was likely up for grabs. Thicknesse did make the mistake of shooting too far out allowing Topuria to defend and take the back. He failed to get his hooks in and let Thicknesse get to his feet. Once in space, Thicknesse was letting his hands go. He did surprisingly overcommit on a bad takedown attempt and gave Topuria another chance on the mat. In full guard, Thicknesse was doing more off his back moving and throwing up his legs looking for something. Eventually, Thicknesse worked to his knees and back to his feet. He attempted to roll out but Topuria followed him down and remained on top for the rest of the round to end the fight. Come to scorecards, it was a clean sweep by Aleksandre Topuria.
Official Result: Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse by unanimous (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
