We have catalogued 202 Ilia Topuria rookie cards: all of those from 2022, his rookie year, in the Panini products that introduced him, plus the 2023 Goodwin Champions cards Upper Deck prints with its rookie mark. 194 have a photo of the actual copy.
Ilia Topuria made his UFC debut in October 2020, but his first licensed card came in 2022: Topps had left the licence and Panini did not include him in its 2021 products. By the hobby's classic definition, which Beckett sums up as the first licensed base card from a pack-issued product, his rookie card is 2022 Prizm UFC #115, the first to be released.
2022 Prizm UFC #115: hobby on sale 25 March 2022, per Panini. No printed RC logo: 2022 Prizm UFC did not carry one.
There is nothing earlier. Neither 2021 Prizm UFC, nor 2021 Select, nor 2021 Chronicles include him; the independent analysis at FightCardboard lands in the same place.
The pick is by release order, not because the others are less rookie: they are base cards from the same year.
The 2022 order
The products of his rookie year came out like this, with his cards:
March: Prizm UFC, #115. And Panini Instant #23, the card of the KO of Jai Herbert, printed to order the same week.
May: Donruss UFC, Rated Rookie #215, with the rookie logo printed, per Panini.
July: Select UFC, three tiers, #23, #262 and #320, per Panini. And the Instant Rated Rookie Retro set, #RR16.
August: Chronicles UFC, in the Rookies #82 subset and in National Treasures #436.
September: the European Panini UFC Debut Edition collection, #70, an album product rather than hobby.
December: Donruss Optic UFC, Rated Rookie #110 and the Dominators #17 insert, per Panini.
February 2023: Immaculate UFC, #76, which carries 2022 in its name although it shipped later.
The 2023 Goodwin Champions rookies
Upper Deck introduced him in 2023 Goodwin Champions, his first set from the brand, and gave him its rookie stamp: the word ROOKIE on the front or the RC logo. Its official checklist also marks him *Rookie* on the 2023 Update autographs, published in the 2024 Goodwin Champions one. It does not change which card is the rookie card, since Prizm #115 came out a year earlier; it is a manufacturer-designated rookie, like a Donruss Rated Rookie.
We checked the front of every card in a photo, and only those carrying the mark are in:
Base #73: ROOKIE on the Light Blue, Blank, Royal Blue, Orange, Turquoise, Gold and Lucky Red parallels. The Black & White does not carry it.
Platinum #P49: ROOKIE on every parallel.
Splash of Color #SCP-89: with the RC logo.
Autographs #A-IT: his first signature, with ROOKIE, the “El Matador” /50 inscription included.
Diamond Relic Rookies #BDRR-IT: the relic insert devoted to rookies.
Left out, because they lack the mark: Splash of Color #124, All-World, the #HA-IT horizontal autograph, Goudey and Birth Year Coinage.
Waiting for a photo: the #73 printing plates, the Golden Treasures 1/1s and the Diamond Relic Pure Black 1/1. They go in once we can see the front.
Rookie, rookie-year and first autograph
Rookie card: the base card of the debut year. For Ilia Topuria, the Prizm, Select, Donruss, Optic, Chronicles and Immaculate base cards are all rookie-year cards; the first is the rookie.
Rookie-year insert or parallel: Dominators #17 is an insert; the White Sparkle, the animal prints or the Gold /10 are parallels. Valuable in their own right, but not “the rookie”.
Outside the definition: Panini Instant is print-to-order and the Debut Edition is an album collection; they count as cards of the year, not as the rookie card.
First autograph: not in 2022. Ilia Topuria's first signatures are in 2023 Goodwin Champions, and the #A-IT ones carry a printed ROOKIE: that is why they are on this list. All his signatures are in Ilia Topuria autographs.
Which card carries a rookie logo
Yes: Donruss #215 and Optic #110 (Rated Rookie logo), Chronicles #82 (Rookies subset) and the Panini Instant cards, which print RC. In 2023, the Goodwin Champions cards listed above: ROOKIE on base #73, Platinum and the #A-IT autographs, and RC on Splash of Color #SCP-89.
No: Prizm #115 and Select #23, #262 and #320. Their rookie status comes from the date, not a stamp.
How to read this list
This is the whole 2022 list, with base cards, inserts and parallels and no autographs, plus the 2023 Goodwin Champions cards that carry the rookie mark. Each card page states its edition.
Ilia, not Aleksandre: his brother Aleksandre Topuria has his own rookie, base #187 in 2026 Topps Chrome Sapphire UFC per Checklist Insider (secondary source). This list is Ilia Topuria's only.