Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway meet in the featherweight championship main event this Saturday at UFC 308, a fight the MMA community has been waiting for since it was announced.
Watch MMA Fighting’s UFC 308 Timeline video for an in-depth look at how both headliners got to this weekend’s pay-per-view at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The undefeated Topuria captured the UFC featherweight title with a Knockout of the Year contending finish of Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 in February. Prior to that, Topuria competed in his first promotional headliner at UFC Jacksonville, earning a lopsided unanimous decision victory against Josh Emmett in June 2023.
Holloway looks to once again call himself 145-pound champ. Since losing to Volkanovski for the third time at UFC 276 in July 2022, “Blessed” has been on a roll, winning all of his fights, including a knockout for the ages of Justin Gaethje at April’s UFC 300 event to win the BMF title.
Will Topuria’s streak of dominance continue, or will the Blessed Express begin another championship journey?
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to the pay-per-view (PPV) market this Sat. (Oct. 26, 2024) for the “Topuria vs. Holloway” mixed martial arts (MMA) fight card, held inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE. UFC 308 will be headlined by the featherweight title fight between current 145-pound champion Ilia Topuria and former division kingpin Max Holloway. In the UFC 308 co-headliner, former UFC 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker battles undefeated middleweight sensation Khamzat Chimaev. Elsewhere on the card, light heavyweight “Rocket” Aleksandar Rakic tangles with Magomed Ankalaev for a spot in the 205-pound title chase.
But before they can fight, they must first weigh in.
The UFC 308 early (and official) weigh ins will stream LIVE from the promotion’s host hotel in the embedded video above starting promptly at 1 a.m. ET, which is late Thursday night at 10 p.m. PT for you folks operating on Pacific Time. The festivities are expected to last roughly two hours but could end much earlier depending on how quickly all 26 fighters get to the scale. Remember, the promotion will also stage the UFC 308 ceremonial weigh ins — complete with fighter staredowns — live from Etihad Arena at 10 a.m. ET on Friday morning.
Complete UFC 308 early weigh ins text results below:
UFC 308 Main Card on ESPN+ PPV:
145 lbs.: UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria (145) vs. Max Holloway (145) 185 lbs.: Robert Whittaker (185.5) vs. Khamzat Chimaev (186) 145 lbs.: Dan Ige (146) vs. Lerone Murphy (145.5) 205 lbs.: Magomed Ankalaev (204.5) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (206) 185 lbs.: Shara Magomedov (185) vs. Armen Petrosyan (186)
UFC 308 Prelims Card on ESPN/ESPN+:
170 lbs.: Geoff Neal (171) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (171) 155 lbs.: Myktybek Orolbai (159) vs. Mateusz Rębecki (160) 185 lbs.: Abus Magomedov (185) vs. Brunno Ferreira (185.5) 205 lbs.: Chris Barnett (264) vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu (241) 145* lbs.: Farid Basharat (137) vs. Victor Hugo (145.5) 170 lbs.: Rinat Fakhretdinov (171) vs. Carlos Leal (169) 205 lbs.: Ibo Aslan (205) vs. Raffael Cerqueira (203) 185 lbs.: Ismail Naurdiev (185) vs. Bruno Silva (186)
Backup: Diego Lopes (145)
Hugo came in 10 lbs heavy, and Basharat agreed to a Featherweight bout.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 308 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 10 a.m. ET, followed by the UFC 308 PPV main card start time at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 308: “Topuria vs. Holloway” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the complete UFC 308 fight card and PPV lineup click here.
Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway are a day away from one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year at UFC 308, but the official weigh-ins already featured plenty of drama.
Though all 26 fighters competing Saturday in Abu Dhabi successfully made weight—including headliners Topuria and Holloway, both at 145—much of the buzz Friday morning concerned the status of Khamzat Chimaev. “Borz” is set to compete for just the second time since September 2022, having experienced several bout cancellations due to illness and other issues, so there was reason for fans to wonder if he would even make it to the scale.
Sure enough, Chimaev was the last fighter to weigh in, coming in well into the second hour of the official window. In fact, under the revised protocol the UFC has used at several events, fighters are encouraged to register a weight in the first hour and only if that attempt goes awry should they utilize the second hour. Regardless, an apologetic Chimaev stepped to the scale and successfully weighed in at 186 pounds for his fight against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (185.5).
Watch highlights of the official weigh-ins above.
The morning featured two other curiosities, with lightweights Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai now competing in a 160-pound catchweight bout, and Farid Basharat vs. Victor Hugo moved up to the 145-pound limit. The latter change created confusion as Hugo weighed in first at 145.5 pounds, followed by Basharat coming in at 137 pounds. Both fighters most recently competed at bantamweight.
A reason for the changes was not announced.
Check out UFC 308 official weigh-in results below.
Main Card (ESPN+ PPV at 2 p.m. ET)
Ilia Topuria (145) vs. Max Holloway (145)
Backup fighter: Diego Lopes (145)
Robert Whittaker (185.5) vs. Khamzat Chimaev (186)
Magomed Ankalaev (204.5) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (206)
Max Holloway has been through countless wars in his long and successful MMA career. Now, just days away from his highly anticipated return to the Octagon at UFC 308, where he will face Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title, Holloway reflects on the toll the sport has taken on him.
While MMA offers highs like fame and fortune, it also has a significant downside—the physical and mental damage fighters endure. As Holloway prepares for another fight, he does so with heavy concerns about his long-term health.
Holloway’s Concerns
Speaking at the UFC 308 media scrum, Holloway opened up about his fears regarding brain damage and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
“Take care of your guys’ brain, and learn about brain health,” Holloway said at UFC 308 media day. “Do the right things. You only get one brain, guys, you only get one brain, and once that thing starts to deteriorate, it’s not like anything else where you can grow it back. So, be smart. Go see specialists, go see doctors, and do research on your own brain health.”
He continued, “Take care of yourself, guys. I don’t want to be a vegetable when I grow older. Everyone keeps talking to me about how many times I’ve gotten hit, like, brother, I take brain health so seriously. People will never know [what I do]. Maybe after my career, I will talk about it and all the stuff we’ve been doing. But take care of your guys’ brains, do your homework, get on it, and be smart.”
"I don't want to be a vegetable when I'm older. .. I take brain health so serious."
Max Holloway explains why his record 2,223 significant strikes absorbed in UFC competition is not a concern for him entering #UFC308. pic.twitter.com/MmhhdUIZXj
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) October 23, 2024
Continue Reading Max Holloway On CTE Concerns: ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Vegetable When I’m Older’ at MMA News.
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Dana White was more than ready on Thursday to respond to a few statements made by PFL co-founder Donn Davis during a town hall session held on MMA Fighting just 24 hours earlier.
During the hour long question and answer period, Davis addressed numerous inquiries from fans including the success of the recent PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view capped off by Francis Ngannou’s return to MMA where he bludgeoned Renan Ferreira with punches for a first-round finish in the main event. While Davis couldn’t reveal how many pay-per-view buys the card generated, he did make one dubious claim when comparing PFL to UFC.
“This event by our research beat every viewership number of every UFC event this year and was very, very close to Ring of Fire,” Davis said.
It’s safe to say, White isn’t buying it.
When asked to address that claim following a Power Slap event in Abu Dhabi, the UFC CEO gleefully pulled out a sheet of paper filled with metrics comparing PFL to his slap-fighting league rather than the UFC.
“The PFL should keep the UFC out of their mouth,” White said. “They can’t even deal with Power Slap. Power Slap destroys PFL. It’s weird that you asked me that question because I just happened to have some papers here.
“So first of all let’s start with followers — Power Slap has 19.2 million followers, PFL has 10 [million]. Video views, PFL fight week did 326 million. Power Slap 8 did 690 million. PFL fight week Instagram views: 76 million. So if you look at PFL, fight week and the aftermath, these guys had 76 [million]. Just the week of [the event] they had 68 million on Power Slap and we hadn’t even had a fight yet. PFL’s Instagram reel with Francis and Ronaldo did 14 million views. Power Slap 9’s Instagram reel with contender Isaih [Quinones] had 22 million views. That was a repost of an old fight. The repost of the old fight beat Francis and Ronaldo.”
While he didn’t spend much time pitting the UFC against PFL, White did toss out one claim that a UFC Fight Night card held back in January actually pulled in bigger viewership numbers than the PFL pay-per-view.
“I could keep going on for a f*cking month here,” White said. “Then if you want to get into what he said about the UFC, I have a laundry list here but let me just start with this: UFC Vegas 84 at the APEX beat them.
“I love the stuff that he said. He sounds like Kamala [Harris], talks a lot but says nothing. I would hate to be one of that guy’s investors. [He said] ‘I don’t watch MMA. I’ve worked seven years and haven’t taken a vacation.’ You should probably take a vacation. You’re out of your f*cking mind. You should probably take a vacation.”
White rarely misses an opportunity to dunk on anybody attempting to come after him or the UFC but he reveled in the opportunity to fire back at Davis following his statements on Wednesday.
“That guy shouldn’t even mention the UFC,” White said. “He’s not even in Power Slap’s [league]. Then he was talking about ‘there’s all kinds of combination packages and how all this works.’ He doesn’t beat Power Slap in revenue. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in ticket sales. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in sponsorship. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in anything let alone the UFC.
“It’s obvious this guy isn’t an MMA fan. He’s acting like he’s some f*cking great businessman. He does not sound like a guy that I would want to invest my money with. But good luck to his investors.”
White also addressed the recent statement made by current Bellator champion Usman Nurmagomedov, who said that he planned to eventually join the UFC roster after his friend and teammate Islam Makhachev was done with fighting.
That didn’t come as a surprise to White, who expects Nurmagomedov and every other major fighter in the PFL would prefer competing in the UFC minus one person in particular.
“I mean all their good people want to be over here anyway so I would imagine that eventually yes, they will be here,” White said. “Nobody wants to fight in the f*cking PFL except for Francis.”
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