June 19, 2023 3 min read

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Josh Emmett vs. Ilia Topuria UFC on ABC 5 Odds, Time, and Prediction

Josh Emmett vs. Ilia Topuria is the headliner fight of UFC on ABC 5, an event taking place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, on Saturday, June 24

Ilia Topuria is 13-0 in his professional career as an MMA fighter, but his superb run may come to an end on June 24. It’s because he’s locking horns with one of the best featherweights on the planet, Josh Emmet who’s 18-3 overall.

Josh Emmett vs. Ilia Topuria Odds

MoneylineOdds
Josh Emmett-340
Ilia Topuria+250

*Odds taken from FanDuel on Monday, June 19, 2023.

When, Where, and How to Watch?

  • Place: VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville
  • Date: Saturday, June 24, 2023
  • Time: ~10:00 PM ET
  • How to Watch: ABC

Josh Emmett Planning to Bounce Back After Interim Title Loss

In February, Josh Emmett lost to Yair Rodriguez by submission in a fight for the UFC Featherweight Championship. Before that, he was on a five-fight win streak, two of which were crowned the Fight of the Night, while he also won the Performance of the Night bonus once during that run.

Obviously, he’s a fighter with a great pedigree, who’s got plenty of weapons in his arsenal. Emmett is a fantastic wrestler who doesn’t often use his wrestling skills to attack. Instead, he uses them to defend against takedowns. Unsurprisingly, he’s been great at it, with a TD defense percentage of 58%.

That percentage should’ve been even higher – it’s just that he suffered three TDs against Scott Holtzman in 2016 (but he made eight TDs of his own in that fight). Since then, he got taken down only twice (in 10 fights).

He’s a good wrestler, but his No. 1 forte is striking. “The Fighting Falmer” has fast hands and incredible power, meaning that he could easily turn the lights off for his 12 years younger opponent at UFC Jacksonville.

Biggest Fight in Ilia Topuria’s Career

Will the Ilia Topuria hype train get derailed on June 24? The Georgian-Spanish fighter is 13-0 overall with five wins in the UFC, four of which happened inside the distance. This guy is a well-rounded fighter who excels in wrestling but is also very agile when it comes to boxing.

He’s almost impossible to take down, with Bruce Mitchell – a wrestling/grappling expert – being the only UFC fighter to record a takedown against Topuria. But even he didn’t do much on the floor. In fact, he ended up suffering his first-ever loss – Topuria beat him with an arm–triangle choke.

It was his biggest win thus far, but this time, he’s squaring off against an even tougher opponent. It’s going to be very tough to finish Emmett, and there’s a big question mark on whether Topuria will gas out if the fight doesn’t end quickly. We simply don’t know how durable this guy is as he’s never fought a five-round fight. Actually, 12 of his 13 professional fights lasted under 10 minutes.

Josh Emmett vs. Ilia Topuria Prediction

Technically, Ilia Topuria is superior to Josh Emmett. However, his opponent (probably) has better stamina, not to mention that he’s way more experienced. If Emmett can take the fight to a full five rounds, we think he could win by points. Or maybe we could even see him finish his gassed-out opponent late in the fight.

Pick: Josh Emmett to win

Journalist

Jessie is our resident sports specialist with over 4 years of experience in sports journalism. She's worked with several prominent online sports news outlets in the past and has accrued specialist insight across a wide range of sports markets. Combined with her own love and excitement of sports, having competed at a national level during college, she aims to improve sports coverage value for our readers at GamblingNews.

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