BMF titleholder Max Holloway doesn’t seem keen on accepting Ilia Topuria’s invitation for a wild slugfest in the opening seconds of their UFC 308 headliner.
Holloway and Topuria will square off in the UFC 308 main event on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Topuria will make his first UFC featherweight title defense against the former champion Holloway, who returns to 145lbs after finishing Justin Gaethje at UFC 300.
Tensions have ramped up between Holloway and Topuria in recent weeks leading up to one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year. Topuria has his eyes on the fastest knockout in UFC history against Holloway, who has never lost by TKO/KO in his professional career.
Topuria recently pitched an early sequence at UFC 308 similar to Holloway’s knockout finish he earned at UFC 300. But, Holloway believes Topuria doesn’t understand the purpose of the ‘point down, and throw’ strategy he took in the closing seconds against Gaethje.
Max Holloway Questions Ilia Topuria’s “Boxing IQ” After Recent Challenge
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Holloway scoffed at Topuria’s promise of an early slugfest at UFC 308.
“The point down moment — I don’t think he gets the gist of it,” Holloway responded to Topuria. “At the end of the day the point down, it’s something that you do towards the ending of the fight. If something is going good, if the fight is entertaining or you’re winning, you give the other guy a shot. The moment is the moment for a reason…
“The belt is called the ‘Blessed Man Forever’ or what you guys want to call ‘the baddest mother ‘effer,’” Holloway continued. “If the belt was the ‘DMF,’ the dumbest mother ‘effer, then maybe I would get sucked into it. It’s far from that. Like what I told you, and I told him, he talks about being a boxer — that’s not very much boxer IQ’ish of him, but we’ll see what happens.” (h/t MMA Fighting)
If Holloway or Topuria breaks Jorge Masvidal’s fastest knockout record (0:05 vs. Ben Askren), it’ll be one of the most jaw-dropping moments in mixed martial arts history. But, both fighters have proven their power in recent fights, especially after Topuria finished Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298.
Topuria vs. Holloway headlines one of the biggest cards of 2024, but fans shouldn’t feel overly hopeful about seeing a phone-booth brawl as they take the center of the Octagon.