According to Dana White, there is one bad thing about the highly-anticipated featherweight championship clash between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.
“This Topuria-Holloway fight is terrible because when you like both guys and they actually have to go in there, and somebody has to lose – it sucks,” White recently said on the Outta Pocket with RGIII podcast.
“Max Holloway is one of the greatest ever to do it and just one of the nicest dudes, he has the BMF belt, and he is a BMF. Topuria has been an absolute rockstar. It’s gonna be a fun fight. I hate to see somebody lose that fight.”
UFC 308: Topuria vs. Holloway Saturday at 2 PM ET on ESPN+. Order Now!
Topuria will defend his featherweight crown against Holloway in the UFC 308 headliner at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Topuria is unbeaten in 15 professional bouts and is coming off a second-round stoppage of Alexander Volkanovski to claim featherweight gold at UFC 298 this past featherweight.
Holloway, meanwhile, has been victorious in five of his last six Octagon appearances. Perhaps no performance raised his stock more than his fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, where he scored a memorable fifth-round knockout to claim the BMF belt. That victory occurred at 155 pounds, but “Blessed” will be returning to featherweight on Saturday in hopes of another championship reign.
“His only move up in weight where he looked really good was Gaethje… When he was younger, he had that lean body build,” White said. “He’s filled out a little bit since he’s gotten older. 100% [he looks different] and different from when he fought [Dustin] Poirier too, it’s an interesting fight – a very interesting fight.”
