UFC Abu Dhabi is currently in full swing, but earlier today, Dana White announced the PPV that will be coming back to Abu Dhabi in October. White announced that featherweight champion Ilia Topuria (15-0) will be defending his title against the new BMF Max Holloway (26-7).
UFC 308 goes down in Abu Dhabi on October 26th. Back in February, Ilia Topuria had his crowning moment when he knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round of their title fight to become the featherweight champion. It was Topuria’s seventh fight inside the octagon and obviously, he’s been perfect.
Prior to knocking out Volkanovski to become champion, Topuria brutalized Josh Emmett over five rounds and became the first man to defeat Bryce Mitchell. His first title defense is going to be a really tough one as he takes on one of the greatest fighters in the history of the UFC.
UFC 308
Ilia Topuria winning the title gave Max Holloway another crack at the featherweight title. Max Holloway reined over the featherweight division for a few years prior to Volkanovski taking the title from him. They would fight two more times with Volkanovski winning all three fights with the last one being extremely lopsided.
However, after the third loss, Holloway kept grinding away. He defeated Arnold Allen at UFC Kansas City last year and then he knocked out Chan Sung Jung last August. Those led him to moving up to lightweight to take on Justin Gaethje for the BMF title. Holloway put on arguably the best performance of his career and had a knockout for the ages in the final seconds to become the UFC’s new BMF. Now, in October he’ll try once again to become undisputed champion.