Ilia Topuria swore he’d become the first person to ever knock out Max Holloway. As the MMA world continues to find out, the UFC featherweight champion is a man of his word.
Topuria defended his title in historic, brutal fashion on Saturday, knocking out Holloway with a monstrous salvo of punches in UFC 308’s main event, which went down at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena. With the win, Topuria closes his 2024 campaign having knocked out two of the most decorated featherweights in UFC history with statement-making finishes over an eight-month span. Topuria captured his title by ending the four-year reign of Alexander Volkanovski in February.
“To beat a legend like Max Holloway, it’s something that — I can’t even believe it,” an emotional Topuria said. “I just followed his entire career. He inspired so much in my career. He’s been a great example for my generation, and I always have said that I represent now the new generation, and I hope that I’m going to be a small portion of the example he has been for me, for the new generation.”
Topuria (16-0) threw hellfire at Holloway from the opening bell. The 27-year-old champion stayed true to his promise to offer Holloway one of the challenger’s signature point-down throwdowns in the first 10 seconds, and after Holloway refused, Topuria went to work, backing up Holloway with heavy hooks and taking him down twice to the canvas in the early going. Holloway appeared to start finding his rhythm in round two, staying long with his punches and landing in volume, but the tide quickly turned again in the third round after Topuria landed a monster right hand that dazed his challenger.
Sensing the end, Topuria jumped onto Holloway with several vicious flurries before finally making history by downing Holloway with a picture-perfect left hand just 94 seconds into the third round.
Holloway (26-8) is now 0-4 over his past four attempts to reclaim the UFC featherweight title.
“I felt great until he did it,” Holloway said in defeat. “That’s the sport, man. Hats off to him. No excuses. I felt great, I had a great camp, no injuries. I went out here, did my thing. He was just the better man tonight, but he gave me the name ‘bounce back,’ so I’ll see you again, my friend.”
In the co-main event, Khamzat Chimaev (14-0) made a thunderous statement for immediate entry into the middleweight title picture, cutting through former UFC champion Robert Whittaker (26-8) like a hot knife through butter in a stunning display of mixed martial arts dominance.
Chimaev needed mere seconds to dive across the cage and drag Whittaker to the floor. From there, he methodically worked Whittaker over, taking the former champ’s back, sinking in two hooks, and tossing out an array of rear-naked choke attempts before coaxing an instant tap from Whittaker with a brutal face crank submission. The fight-ending sequence appeared to injure Whittaker’s jaw, giving Chimaev the distinction of becoming the first man since 2011 to finish Whittaker via submission.
The official time of the stoppage came just 3:34 into the opening round. Afterward, Chimaev seized the microphone and called to skip Sean Strickland in the queue to challenge UFC champion Dricus du Plessis.
“Dana (White), what’s wrong with UFC, man? Give me the belt,” Chimaev shouted.
Elsewhere on the card, top-ranked light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev (18-1-1, 1 NC) continued his pursuit of UFC champion Alex Pereira with a clear — if uneventful — unanimous decision win over Aleksandar Rakić (14-5). In an all-striking affair, Ankalaev outworked and out-landed Rakic to earn a trio of unanimous 29-28 scores, pushing his unbeaten UFC streak to 12 straight bouts.
“I’ve done everything to deserve the next title shot,” Ankalaev said. “I’d like to talk to Alex, I’d like to tell him, hey, stop running away from me, we should fight. That’s what everybody wants to see.”
It wasn’t easy, but Lerone Murphy (15-0-1) gutted out a come-from-behind victory over Dan Ige (18-9) to preserve his undefeated record after getting badly hurt by a counter left hand in opening round.
Upon surviving to the horn, Murphy rebounded by winning rounds two and three by mixing a steady diet of timely takedowns with an increased striking output, including a big salvo of punches and knees at the buzzer to seal the deal. In the end, all three judges scored the bout 29-28 for Murphy, giving the English contender a seven-fight win streak in the UFC featherweight division.
Following his win, Murphy called out one-time UFC interim title challenger Josh Emmett.
In evening’s the pay-per-view opener, middleweight up-and-comer Shara Magomedov (15-0) kicked things off in highlight-reel fashion, staying unbeaten with an absurd knockout of Armen Petrosyan (9-4) courtesy of a sequence that essentially amounted to a double spinning backfist.
Magomedov cracked Petrosyan with a right spinning backfist then immediately spun again and walloped him with a left backfist, earning the walk-off knockout at the 4:52 mark of Round 2.
Magomedov is now a perfect 4-0 under the UFC umbrella.
Get complete UFC 308 results from the all-star staff at Uncrowned here.
To relive all the action from a wild Saturday in Abu Dhabi, check out Uncrowned’s UFC 308 live blog.
