Ilia Topuria retained his featherweight title on October 26 against Max Holloway at UFC 308 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The pair squared off in the scheduled for five rounds main event that didn’t go the distance.
The Georgian-Spanish champion claimed the win by knockout after he hurt the former titleholder of Hawaii with a right hand and dropped him with a big left hook. The official time was 1 minute and 34 seconds into the third round.
With the victory, Ilia Topuria made the first successful defense of his 145-pound title and improved to 16-0. In his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier, the German-born 27-year-old said he would give a rematch to Alexander Volkanovski.
Topuria dethroned the former champion of Australia by knockout in the second round in February. Their second fight could serve as the UFC 312 main event live from Sydney on February 8 (ET).
“He is man, we’re going to do it again,” Ilia Topuria said. You deserve that. You’re the man. He defended his title seven times… I don’t know how many times… If someone deserves it – it’s him. So, let’s do it, brother.”
Max Holloway didn’t succeed in his third attempt to become a two-time champion. The 32-year-old suffered his first career knockout, dropped to 26-8 and got his three-fight winning streak snapped.
“We got ready for everything,” Max Holloway said. “He just land a shot and I guess it hurt much more than I thought it did.”
“I felt great bro, I felt great till he did it. That’s just this sport. 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 a better man tonight. But he gave me the name ‘bounceback’, so I’ll see you again, my friend.”
In other UFC 308 results
In the co-main event, the UAE-based unbeaten Khamzat Chimaev (14-0) forced New Zealand-Australian former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (26-8) to tap via first-round face crank. The time was 3:34 into the first round.
Among other UFC 308 results, light heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev (19-1-1, 1 NC) defeated Aleksandar Rakic (14-5) of Austria by unanimous decision with the scores 29-28 x3. Lerone Murphy (15-0-1) of England similarly defeated Dan Ige (18-9) of Hawaii at featherweight. In the PPV opener, unbeaten middleweight Sharabutdin Magomedov (15-0) KO’d Armen Petrosyan (9-4) of Armenia with a spinning back fist at 4:52 into the second round.
Atop the UFC 308 prelims, light heavyweight Ibo Aslan (14-1) of Turkey KO’d Rafael Cerqueira (11-1) of Brazil in 51 seconds with punches. Also on the card, welterweight Geoff Neal (16-6) of Harker Heights, Texas took the win against Brazil’s Rafael dos Anjos (32-17) via first-round TKO due to knee injury to the latter.
As well, lightweight Mateusz Rebecki (20-2) of Poland took the win by split decision against Kyrgyzstan’s Myktybek Orolbai (13-2-1) with the scores 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28. Germany-based middleweight Abus Magomedov (27-6-1) submitted Brunno Ferreira (12-2) of Brazil via third-round arm-triangle choke.
Plus, Nigeria’s Kennedy Nzechukwu (13-5) stopped Chris Barnett (23-9) of Spain in the first round at heavyweight with knee to the body and punches. Unbeaten featherweight Farid Basharat (13-0) of Afghanistan defeated Victor Hugo (25-5) of Brazil by unanimous decision with the scores 30-27 and 29-28 x2.
In addition, Austria-based Ismail Naurdiev (24-7) earned a three-round unanimous decision against Brazil’s Bruno Silva (23-12) at middleweight. Kicking off the action, welterweight Rinat Fakhretdinov (23-1-1) walked away with a UD against Brazilian Carlos Leal (21-5) with the scores 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.