Ilia Topuria is the fighter in focus ahead of this Saturday’s UFC 317 headliner as he gears up to fight Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title. However, the focus seems to have shifted from ‘El Matador’s fight to his social media activity. The eagle-eyed fans appear to have called out Topuria for allegedly trying to compete for followers on Instagram, and the community has voiced its opinion about it.

Having a strong media presence plays a key role in a fighter’s career, especially his marketability. Ilia Topuria has appeared to be quite the marketable fighter, as he was recently seen hosting his own press conference ahead of UFC 317. But what has caught the people’s attention is the substantial rise in his Instagram followers in a relatively short period of time.

Yes, Ilia Topuria is a big star now as he’s been a world champion and is still undefeated. Over the years, he’s racked up thousands of followers every month. However, in the last 30 days, ‘El Matador’ saw an increase of over one million followers, and his follower count now stands at over 9 million. Guess what? Topuria now has more than half a million more followers than Charles Oliveira and is just around 400K short of reaching the consensus UFC GOAT, Jon Jones.

Well, as expected, the fans have shared their opinion about it. While some of them appear to be negative for Ilia Topuria, others look quite positive, given his status as a former UFC champion. So, let’s take a look at how they reacted to this finding.

Did Ilia Topuria buy Instagram followers? Fans doubt ex-champ

So, the unusual spike in Ilia Topuria’s follower count has convinced some fans that something fishy is going on with it. Perhaps the former featherweight champion has purchased some followers, as there are no laws on Instagram that prohibit a user from doing that. Feeling that he used a cheap tactic, a fan said that ‘El Matador’ is nothing but a “manufactured ‘star.'” Well, if that reaction seems forced to you, another fan doubled down on the notion that Topuria is trying to imitate the biggest UFC star with the comment, “He’s just a worse version of Conor Mcgregor,” on an X post.

Well, the negative comments kept coming to Ilia Topuria. A fan is hoping that Charles Oliveira puts him to sleep after coming across this finding about his alleged fake Instagram followers, which the website Modash claims totals over 50 percent of his nine million followers. “Wait until Bronx submits him,” that fan said. On the other side of the spectrum, some fans appeared to back Topuria, claiming that he’s not the only fighter with fake followers. They defended ‘El Matador’ as one fan said, “Check how many of Jones’s and McGregors are fake.”

Moreover, the UFC also has a fair share of fan base among young kids, and some fans believe those million new followers of Ilia Topuria could be those children. “All litle kids those new followers.” No matter what others have to say, Topuria is a star, and some fans are invested in him. As such, a lot of them believe that the fan base is organic, but even if it’s not, they don’t seem to have any issues. A couple of fans commented, “Hes gaining followers because hes been winning, its that simple dummy,” and, “I’m always gonna be a fan of the talented troll, this guys hilarious lmao,” in that regard.

Well, if we look at the engagement rate of Ilia Topuria’s Instagram account, he’s currently ranked at 40,515th on Social Blade. So, this really sparks the question: Did he really buy those million followers? Well, let us know what you think in the comments down below.