Ahead of tonight’s UFC On ABC 7 event, Dana White has unveiled a stacked card for UFC 308 on October 26th, which will also be taking place in Abu Dhabi.
Headlining the event will be a featherweight title fight as current champion Ilia Topuria makes his first defense of the belt against Max Holloway.
The 27-year-old Topuria has been a force of nature since joining the UFC in 2020, winning all 7 of his fight so far to extend his unbeaten record to a perfect 13-0.
Along the way he’s beaten the likes of Josh Emmett, Bryce Mitchell and Ryan Hall, but it was his 2nd round knockout victory over long-time champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February that led to ‘El Matador’ ascending as high as No.4 on the UFC’s current pound-for-pound list.
Meanwhile, his next opponent Holloway has been fighting in the UFC at the top level for 12 years, yet he’s actually only five years older than Topuria at 32.
‘Blessed’ is of course a former 145lb champion who in the past decade has only lost to one man in the division – Volkanovski, who proved to be his nemesis by getting the better of him on three occasions.
Beyond that though Holloway has beaten a who’s who of the division over the years, including the likes of Jose Aldo (twice), Frankie Edgar, Brian Ortega, Yair Rodriguez, Charles Oliveira, Arnold Allen, The Korean Zombie and the list goes on.
Perhaps Holloway’s most memorable fight of all though happened last time out when he stepped up to lightweight to fight Justin Gaethje for the symbolic ‘BMF’ title at UFC 300 a few months ago and not only got the better of the heavy-hitter for the best part of five rounds, but then proceeded to KO him in literally the last second of the bout.
So that fight alone will be worth the price of admission, but the UFC have also rebooked a middleweight showdown between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker for the co-main event spot on the UFC 308 card after it’s initial headlining spot at UFC On ABC 6 in Saudi Arabia in June fell through on short notice due to Chimaev being hospitalized due to a serious illness.
Whittaker instead went on to fight Ikram Aliserov on short-notice instead and took just 1.49mins to knock him out to build on a win over Paulo Costa earlier in the year and take the former 185lb champ to No.3 in the rankings.
As for Chimaev, he remains undefeated at 13-0, including seven wins in the UFC so far, with his last victory being a majority decision verdict over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 last October.
That’s not all though as the event will also feature two more high-stakes match-ups, including a heavyweight rematch between the No.2 ranked Ciryl Gane and No.3 placed Alexander Volkov as well as light-heavyweight battle between the No.2 ranked Magomed Ankalev and current No.5 Aleksander Rakic.
Check out the full UFC 308 fight card so far below.
Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway
Robert Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov 2
Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Nursulton Ruziboev
Lerone Murphy vs. Dan Ige
