Can Max Holloway dethrone Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 for the Featherweight Title.

Photo Credit: MMAWeekly.com

On Saturday October 23rd  the UFC 308 will be going down in Abu Dhabi for the most anticipated and star powered card of all year. This also features the most up in the air main event we have had in a long time. 

It features UFC veteran, former champion and current BMF title holder Max Holloway who earned a title shot after earner a spectacular knockout win against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 where Hollaway pointed to the octagon in the last 10 seconds of a grueling 25 minute war and both fighters proceeded to throw punches with fight ending intention. This resulted in Holloway clipping Gaethje in the final second of the belt, finishing off an already exciting fight with an even more impressive knockout.

Topuria is coming off of a knockout as well against the legend in Alexander Volkanaski that came in the second round of their fight. Days before the fight Topuria was seen holding his belt and putting in his Instagram that he was the “UFC Featherweight champion” a couple weeks before the fight even started. Once the octagon doors closed Topuria was all business closing in on Volkanovski in the second round and landing hook that showed Volkanaski the raw power of Topuria in his boxing.

Both fighters plan to leave Abu Dhabi crowned champion but who will realize the ultimate goal? Let’s go over the two big keys to victory for this matchup.

Boxing

This fight is more than likely going to stay on the feet as both fighters possess elite boxing with different styles respectively. Holloway is a volume fighter throwing large sets of combinations mixing in all three levels of the body wearing down his opponent until they are fatigued enough to lower their hands and give up. Usually his fights are long, grueling and bloody wars that seem to put most of his opponents like legend Jose Aldo or Anthony Petis into a defensive state where they can’t even throw any counters. Topuria will rely on the opposite and use his strong powerful hooks especially in the later rounds. With Volkanovski he waited patiently to get his perfect shot in after Volkanovski was down, he closed the angle nicely and started to tee off being able to land a clean shot and the rest is history. He has a history of doing this especially with guys like Josh Emmit where he calculated his shot and was patient to throw in open areas instead of trying to break his opponents guard down.  It’s going to be interesting to see whose style outmatches who.

Chin Strength

This is the other big topic in this fight with Holloway never being knocked out or really knocked down for that matter and having a metal chin. This also gives him the ability to use the aforementioned slow, volume striking style without getting clipped. It will be intriguing to see if Topuria’s power will get the best of Max because up to this point we really haven’t seen anyone with the power of Topuria. With Topuria it’s not as black and white, he has been knocked down before multiple times by guys like Bryce Mitchell and Jai Herbert who have stunned Topuria. 

Fight Prediction

My heart is telling me Holloway but my mind is saying Ilia Topuria. Ilia’s striking, patience and explosiveness will take a toll on Holloway in the first and maybe second round and eventually I personally believe that he will find his shot and be able to be the first person to knockout Max Holloway in the 3rd round.