Former UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria is in London for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night show, and Brazilian lightweight Kaue Fernandes hopes to leave him in shock with his performance.
Fernandes will face Guram Kutateladze in the preliminary portion of the card at the O2 Arena and said that beating a man that is friends with fellow Georgian stars Ilia Topuria and Merab Dvalishvili could create some buzz — and future narratives.
“I thought about it,” Fernandes said of possibly seeing Dvalishvili and Topuria in the opposite corner on Saturday. “What if Topuria is there ,and I don’t know, he’s kind of stressed that his friend lost, and it creates a story [laughs]. I think the fact [Kutateladze] is friends with the champions does create a bigger hype.”
Topuria reigned as the 145-pound champion, but he decided to vacate the belt to move up to Fernandes’ weight class and chase Islam Makhachev’s throne. The UFC has yet to announce a date and first opponent for Topuria at lightweight.
“[Kutateladze] has some already — not much, but some hype,” he continued. “If I beat him in a close decision, for example, it gives me no hype. But if I knock him out, it does give me some hype. I think it’s an excellent opportunity. … This fight will put me in a position that I can ask for more. I have what it takes already, I just haven’t showed it yet. And I can only show it by fighting.”
The Nova Uniao lightweight lost a close split decision to Marc Diakiese in his octagon debut back in 2023 and rebounded with a first-round knockout over Mohammad Yahya in Abu Dhabi, and says that competing in enemy territory fuels him.
“I’m a bit different when it comes to that,” Fernandes said of entering the octagon in Europe. “I think it gives me more energy when I’m fighting away. My last fight was in Abu Dhabi, against a guy from Abu Dhabi. I get to visit London, which was a dream of mine, and I get a ton of energy [fighting here]. It makes me more powerful.”
Fernandes feels more confident entering the cage off of a victory compared to last time around, when he had to overcome a previous defeat. Finishing Yahya “gives you confidence with your punching power to know that when you land, it will cause damage,” Fernandes said, as he hopes it ends with a $50,000 performance bonus on his pocket.
“[Kutateladze] did more grappling than stand-up in his last fight even though he comes from a striking background,” Fernandes said of Kutateladze’s decision victory over Jordan Vucenic in August 2023. “He tends to grapple when he feels in danger on the feet, but every athlete is like that. If I feel it’s not going my way, which in my opinion is unlikely, I can do that too. He might try to grapple, but I expect this to be a stand-up fight.”
