Ilia Topuria will make his first featherweight title defense against former champ Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 308.
UFC CEO Dana White announced the booking on Saturday morning. In the evening’s co-headliner, Robert Whittaker will square off against Khamzat Chimaev in a rebooked middleweight showdown. Other featured bouts on the card include Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic at light heavyweight and a previously reported heavyweight bout pitting Ciryl Gane against Alexander Volkov. UFC 308 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 26.
Topuria claimed featherweight gold with a second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 on Feb. 17. The Spainard is undefeated in 15 professional outings, a run that includes victories in his first seven Octagon appearances and other notable triumphs against the likes of Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell.
Holloway, 32, hasn’t held the featherweight belt since 2019, when he relinquished the crown in a five-round defeat to Volkanovski at UFC 245. Despite an 0-3 mark against his Aussie rival, Holloway has remained among the top 145-pound contenders, besting the likes of Calvin Kattar, Yair Rodriguez, Arnold Allen and Chan Sung Jung in recent years. In his last outing, the popular Hawaiian scored a memorable fifth-round KO of Justin Gaethje to claim the BMF belt at UFC 300.
Whittaker was originally scheduled to meet Chimaev in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event on June 22 before Chimaev withdrew from the event due to illness. The ex-middleweight king has won three of his last four within the Las Vegas-based promotion and is coming off a first-round KO of Ikram Alliskerov in the UFC on ABC 6 headliner.
Chimaev holds a 13-0 career mark, but his momentum has slowed somewhat due to inactivity in recent years. “Borz” fought just once in 2023, taking a majority decision over Kamaru Usman in his 185-pound debut at UFC 294.
Ankalaev kicked off his 2024 campaign with a second-round KO of Johnny Walker in a rematch at UFC Fight Night 234 on Jan. 13. The 32-year-old Dagestani owns an 18-1-1 career record that includes wins over the likes of Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, Volkan Oezdemir and Nikita Krylov.
After injuring his knee in a loss to Jan Blachowicz in May 2022, Rakic returned to action at UFC 300, where he suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Jiri Prochazka. Prior to that, “Rocket” had been victorious in six of his first seven Octagon appearances.
Gane and Volkov initially squared off in the main event of UFC Fight Night 190 in June 2021, with the Frenchman winning a five-round unanimous decision. A former interim heavyweight king, Gane has twice come up short in bids for the undisputed belt, falling to Francis Ngannou via unanimous decision at UFC 270 and to Jon Jones via first-round submission at UFC 285. “Bon Gamin” rebounded from the loss to Jones by scoring a second-round TKO triumph against Sergey Spivak at UFC Fight Night 226 this past September.
A former Bellator MMA and M-1 Global champion, Volkov has yet to challenge for UFC gold since joining the promotion in 2016. The 35-year-old Russian has won his last four outings, including a three-round verdict over former training partner Sergei Pavlovich at UFC on ABC 6 on June 22.
