Ilia Topuria preserve his featherweight championship towards Max Holloway, presen Chechnya’s Khamzat Chimaev remained undefeated within the middleweight elegance.
Champion Ilia Topuria overcame early unhappiness to attain a thunderous third-round knockout victory over Hawaii’s Max Holloway to conserve the UFC featherweight name at UFC 308 on the Etihad Area in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The 27-year-old Topuria scored an early takedown however struggled to supremacy the space throughout the first two frames of an roguish name struggle. As soon as he figured it out, the writing was once at the wall for his opponent.
Holloway, who defeated Jose Aldo to change into undisputed featherweight champ in June 2017 however misplaced the belt in December 2019, worn his dizzying array of moves to accumulation his Georgian-born opponent at bay, however Topuria’s piston-like proper hand was once a blackmail all through on Saturday evening.
That proper hand was once what began Holloway’s loss of life, however it was once a follow-up decrease left that despatched Holloway crashing to the canvas and upcoming Topuria briefly adopted him to the grassland, dropping rain blows ahead of referee Marc Goddard jumped in to restrain the struggle.
“With that right hand, I felt it. I just saw it with him, in his face, he started making some steps back, and you don’t see that often with Max,” Topuria stated, paying tribute to his opponent as Holloway suffered the primary knockout lack of his UFC tenure.
“I hope I’m going to be a small portion of the example he has been for me, for the new generation.”
Chimaev win units up doable name struggle with Du Plessis
Within the co-main tournament, undefeated Chechen Khamzat Chimaev placed on some other dominant grappling show ahead of filing former champ Robert Whittaker within the first around in their middleweight match.
Chimaev wasted deny future taking the Australian ill, the usage of his limpet-like wrestling to keep an eye on Whittaker ahead of taking his again and latching directly to a face crank that seemed to dislocate his opponent’s jaw, forcing an overly fast faucet with 1:26 left to advance within the first body.
Chimaev is now tipped to be the #1 contender to struggle South Africa’s Dricus Du Plessis for the UFC middleweight global name in early 2025, in what could be a blockbuster matchup.