Ilia Topuria faced an unexpected moment in his fight with Max Holloway on Saturday night. Topuria made history at UFC 308, becoming the first fighter ever to finish Holloway, cementing his place as a top featherweight contender.
This victory extended Topuria’s undefeated record to 16-0, building on his previous win over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, where he claimed the featherweight title by knockout.
Surprising Moment
Before the fight, Topuria had expressed his intent to engage Holloway in a slugfest, planning to point to the ground and call for a toe-to-toe battle. Holloway had initially doubted that Topuria would follow through, yet when the moment came, it was Holloway who didn’t engage.
“That surprised me,” Topuria admitted. “I pointed to the ground, and he didn’t stop in the middle of the octagon. He started with some bullsh*t like that. You called yourself the bull, and you said, ‘I’m the bull, and ‘The Matador’ is running from me.’ But you never see a bull doing this. It surprised me a little, so I had to adjust the game plan. But at the end of the day, I got the knockout.”
Continue Reading Ilia Topuria Reveals The One Thing That Surprised him About Max Holloway Fight at MMA News.
Jon Jones competes in the UFC 309 main event | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
The UFC 309 fight card is almost complete.
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones squares off against former UFC champion Stipe Miocic in the main event. UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall serves as a backup for the two legends.
The co-main event features former UFC champion Charles Oliveira in a rematch against Michael Chandler, who gave up on his quest to face Conor McGregor. Oliveira defeated Chandler via second-round TKO at UFC 262 on May 15, 2021.
Here is the UFC 309 main card, which is televised exclusively on ESPN+ pay-per-view, below:
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic
Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler
Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
Bo Nickal vs. Paul Craig
Chris Weidman vs. Eryk Anders
The only fight still to be finalized is the top preliminary bout that was scheduled to feature Mauricio Ruffy, who still needs an opponent. The UFC 309 prelims will possibly feature eight fights.
Rafael dos Anjos turned 40 this past Saturday, but a knee injury suffered during his UFC 308 welterweight bout with Geoff Neal cut his celebration short in Abu Dhabi.
On a three-fight losing skid now and winless for almost two years, the former UFC lightweight champion laments the fact he could have to go under the knife and delay his return to the cage, although he’s still unsure of what was the injury suffered at UFC 308.
“I think it was on my second kick thrown, me and Neal kicked at the same time and I felt a big snap, a big pop behind my knee,” dos Anjos said in a video posted on his social media. “Throughout my whole UFC career, it’s my second time being hospitalized after the fight and it makes me realize how blessed I am. It’s a very tough sport, and going to the hospital only twice in your whole career is a good number.”
Dos Anjos had to undergo post-fight surgery back in August of 2010, when he tapped against Clay Guida after fracturing his jaw. The Brazilian veteran, now 21-15 under the UFC banner and 7-9 since losing his title in 2016, said he’s not ending his career just yet.
“Definitely it was not how I want to celebrate my 40th birthday, it was a tough loss,” dos Anjos wrote on a separate post. “Time to heal up, enjoy the family. I’m not done yet, I’ll be back soon. God bless you all.”
Neal rebounded from back-to-back defeats to Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry with his win over dos Anjos, boosting his octagon record to 8-4 with key stoppage victories over Vicente Luque, Mike Perry and Niko Price. He also owns a decision win over current champion Belal Muhammad from when the two fought in 2019.
After McGregor suggested he’d cave Topuria’s head in, the featherweight champion responded with his own fiery declaration of war.
Conor McGregor had plenty to say about Ilia Topuria following the featherweight champion’s brutal knockout win over Max Holloway at UFC 308 (watch the finish here).
Holloway had never been knocked out before in his career — and that included a 2013 fight with the Mac that went to decision. That didn’t stop “The Notorious” from challenging and then throwing shade at the man who now holds his 145 pound belt on X (formerly Twitter).
“Call me,” McGregor tweeted in a series of since-deleted posts, before adding “Cave his head in handy.”
“Good little fighter, too small for anything substantial IMO,” McGregor continued. “He was getting chewed up there.”
Dana White is asked about Conor McGregor’s “Call Me” tweet.#UFC308 pic.twitter.com/lf6NjukfD2
“Few [featherweights] now in the mix, and I beat every single one of them. I am that divisions menace. Point blank. Everyone on that list I hurt badly and finish. Not one of them lay a glove on King Mac.”
It’s worth mentioning that McGregor hasn’t fought at featherweight for 9 years now and was set to fight at welterweight for UFC 303 before he withdrew due to a broken pinky toe. It’s kind of crazy to hear him call out 145ers, but at this point his age and inactivity do make a matchup with Topuria an interesting possibility. Meet in the middle at 155?
For his part, “El Matador” turned on his own trash talk after being read some of McGregor’s tweets in a post-fight interview with ESPN.
Ilia Topuria went OFF on Conor McGregor in response to his tweet:
“Honest to god, don’t cross paths with me NEVER ever. Because I’m gonna f*** you up whenever I see you.” #UFC #MMA #UFC308pic.twitter.com/xPlfnrQ1zx
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 27, 2024
“I don’t know what to say. He’s fake,” Topuria said. “He’s a fake, he fakes the comeback every time. He insults everyone in the UFC. He’s like, ‘I don’t care about anyone, I don’t respect anyone.’”
“Bro, you’re sick. You have some problems to fix in your in your mind. You need to take some classes of respect or have to trade the people [around you] because you’re gonna end up really, really bad. When you follow this kind of value in your life, you’re gonna end up really bad.”
“So ask to God you don’t cross paths with me never ever,” Topuria concluded. “Because I’m gonna f— you up whenever I’m gonna see you.”
Ilia Topuria likely has a familiar foe awaiting him for his second title defense.
After becoming the first person to knock out Max Holloway in a stunning performance to cap off UFC 308 on Saturday, the reigning UFC featherweight champion came face-to-face with the man he beat to win the belt. Alexander Volkanovski made his way into the cage following Topuria’s win and the former opponents shared a few kind words for each other in anticipation of an expected rematch.
While UFC CEO Dana White typically doesn’t like to play matchmaker on the same night of an event, he says it’s almost certain that Volkanovski gets the chance to run it back with Topuria next.
“Listen, Volkanovski’s one of those guys, we’re not going to say no to Volkanovski,” White said at the UFC 308 post-fight press conference. “He’s been that guy for us. Any time we needed him. He was on this run like [Israel] Adesanya, like Alex [Pereira] is on right now, when things don’t go our way, and you’ve got to call a guy, Volkanovski’s always been that guy. He really was.
“I don’t think anybody’s in this room going ‘oh this is ridiculous or crazy’ and who wouldn’t want to see it again?”
Volkanovski hasn’t fought since he suffered a knockout loss to Topuria back in February in the fight that cost him the featherweight title. That actually served as his second consecutive knockout loss after Volkanovski fell to UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in similar fashion after he accepted a short-notice fight with hopes of winning a second title.
Instead, Volkanovski ate a brutal head kick in the first round that ended his night. Four months later, Topuria dished out the same result. Afterwards, Volkanovski was told he could get a rematch when he was ready to compete again and it appears the UFC is following through on that promise.
There’s no timeline when the fight might happen, although Volkanovski was pushing to return at the upcoming UFC 312 card scheduled for Australia in February. Prior to his win on Saturday, Topuria shot down any hope that he would defend his title in enemy territory so it remains to be seen when or where the rematch against Volkanovski happens.
With a perfect 16-0 record that now includes wins over two of the greatest featherweights of all time in Volkanovski and Holloway, Topuria is already entering rarified area when it comes to his career. A second win over Volkanovski would separate Topuria even further from his peers at 145 pounds.
“We were just talking in the back. As you start to clip off legend after legend after legend, you eventually become a legend,” White said about Topuria. “Both guys looked great tonight. Max came in with the right game plan. I think the early calf kicks added up and took their toll later in the fight. Those things are so devastating when people throw them the right way. He couldn’t have fought a better fight.
“[Topuria] took some big shots himself. Has the chin, kept coming forward, incredible performance by both guys. But Topuria did something that nobody’s ever done before.”
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