Renato Moicano liked Ilia Topuria's chances of dethroning Islam Makhachev.

Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) vacated his UFC featherweight title in hopes of challenging Makhachev for the lightweight belt. However, with Makhachev relinquishing his own belt for a move up to welterweight, the fight won't happen next. Instead, Topuria meets Charles Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) for the vacant 155-pound belt in the UFC 317 main event June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).

Despite coming off a quick submission loss to Makhachev at UFC 311 in January, Moicano (20-6-1 MMA, 12-6 UFC) thinks Topuria would take out Makhachev.

"Right now I think Ilia Topuria would beat Islam Makhachev," Moicano said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "We know it's very hard to knock Volkanovski out, how good Volkanovski showed up in his past performance against a very dangerous guy (Lopes). Volkanovski looked in his prime again, he did five rounds.

"And Max Holloway just went to the lightweight division in the beginning of last year, knocked out one of the most dangerous guys (Gaethje) in the division, and then got back to '45 and got knocked out by Topuria. So, that shows that Topuria is the real deal, and I think with his grappling and the way he moves his head and his boxing, I think he would impose a lot of trouble to Islam Makhachev."

Moicano has been rebooked against Beneil Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6-1 UFC) at UFC 317 – his original opponent for UFC 311 before getting the call to replace Arman Tsarukyan against Makhachev in the main event.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC's Renato Moicano: 'Real deal' Ilia Topuria beats Islam Makhachev

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