This past Saturday night in the main event of UFC 308, the featherweight title was on the line. The champion Ilia Topuria (16-0) was looking for his first successful title defense against former featherweight champion and current BMF champion Max “Blessed” Holloway (26-8).
Given how Holloway looked in his last fight against Justin Gaethje, I thought this might be the toughest test at 145 for Ilia Topuria and it looked that way for a while. In the first round, both men had success and Topuria actually landed a takedown. That said, I scored the first for Holloway who really established his jab near the end of the first round.
In the second round, I thought Topuria really did a ton of damage with leg kicks and he landed the more powerful shots up top. That said, Holloway still had a lot of big moments to keep it close. It was a sensational fight through two rounds. The third round started similar, but then everything changed with a massive right from Topuria.
Holloway was visibly rocked and Topuria put it on him. Holloway seemed to recover a bit but then Topuria closed the distance. As Holloway looked to circle, Topuria dropped him bad with a vicious left hook and became the first man to finish Max Holloway and he retained his UFC featherweight title in the process.
What’s next after UFC 308?
This was such a massive statement for Ilia Topuria. He’s undefeated and this year alone he’s knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight title and then he’s knocked out Max Holloway to retain his title. He’s on the very short list for Fighter of the Year.
That being said, what should the UFC do next when it comes to Topuria? Well, I think we got our answer on Saturday night. It definitely appears that the next fight is going to be a rematch with Alexander Volkanovski. Volkanovski hasn’t fought since he lost to Topuria back in February.
That said, you cannot discount what he’s done for the UFC and his title reign at 145. Prior to losing the belt, he had defended the title five times with the majority of those title defenses being incredibly one-sided dominations. Volk only had lost when he moved up to lightweight to challenge Islam Makhachev.
Diego Lopes did weigh-in as the backup and there’s an argument for him to be the next challenger. However, Dana White has already confirmed that they cannot tell Volkanovski no and he’ll be the next in line for El Matador.