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UFC 308: Topuria v Holloway — Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Last night (Sat., Oct. 26, 2024), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Etihard Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for UFC 308. This card stood out as one of the most exciting in recent memory. Highly skilled and generally action-heavy athletes filled the ranks, and the main event of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway was perhaps the best single booking in the sport right now. Whittaker vs. Khamzat and Ankalaev vs. Rakic could easily be seen as title eliminator match ups, so there was a lot on the line for several divisions.

Let’s take a look back over at UFC 308’s best performances and techniques:

El Matador Cracks The Blessed Chin

Ilia Topuria isn’t going anywhere.

There were questions about Topuria after he dethroned Alexander Volkanovski. It was an undeniably impressive win by any metric, but detractors pointed to Volkanovski’s recent KO loss and a favorable style match up. To be clear: nobody was saying that Topuria was a bad fighter, but not everyone believed he was a generational talent either.

It’s a lot harder to doubt now. Holloway came into this fight with an excellent game plan and found real success with his excellent lead hand, snapping Topuria’s head back. He landed quite a few hard kicks up the middle. His strategy of stranding Topuria at distance and out-landing the shorter man worked to some degree.

The problem is that Topuria is unshakable. The Spaniard came in with his own sound strategy, working behind the double jab, aiming to come across the jab with his right, and shredding Holloway’s lead leg with calf kicks. Holloway was put in a difficult position: his jab was clearly his best weapon, but by firing the jab so often, Topuria was able to destroy that left leg in kind.

Holloway couldn’t deter Topuria off his pressure and pocket exchanges. As Holloway’s leg grew more battered and he was able to evade with movement, he started finding himself hit more and more often. Topuria’s ungodly power was already a huge problem, but he really hammered the nail into the coffin by starting to punch the body.

Early in the third, Topuria landed two hard right hands to the torso. Moments later, Holloway was stumbling from a shot upstairs, and there’s no better finisher along the fence than Topuria. Even as “Blessed” smartly side-stepped one big combo and even landed a knee counter for another, a massive Topuria left hook floored him for the first time (officially).

And still!

Khamzat Breaks Whittaker

It’s not so often the ending of a fight leaves me feeling speechless.

For roughly three minutes, everything was as expected. The early Khamzat blitz is pretty much unstoppable. There’s no denying his first couple takedowns. It simply hasn’t been done in the Octagon. Surviving the barrage is the best option though, and Whittaker is an excellent grappler and wrestler, so that felt rather feasible.

For those three minutes, Whittaker survived well. He was preventing the full back take, trying to inch back to his feet, and generally avoiding any monster punches. The first time Chimaev really tried to throw in hooks, Whittaker spun his way to freedom and briefly was back on his feet!

“Borz,” still in the midst of that relentless sprint, put him right back down of course — nothing unexpected. What was shocking, however, was that just a few seconds later Whittaker was tapping FRANTICALLY. Chimaev was in the midway position between mount and back mount when he attacked the rear naked choke, but his angle didn’t seem perfect and Whittaker’s chin was still down. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstance, he was able to finish the submission nearly in an instant.

The moment was stunning, the type of exchange that makes me question my 15 years of grappling experience. I’ve never seen a choke just destroy a jaw the second it is in place. The strength of “Borz” has to be immense!

The bottom line, however, is that Khamzat Chimaev just made himself undeniable at 185-pounds, and his title shot versus Dricus Du Plessis should be booked immediately.

Ankalaev Earns The Win, But Does He Score The Title Shot?

There’s no question Magomed Ankalaev SHOULD be next in line for Alex Pereira.

Prior to this fight, however, Ankalaev revealed that UFC were expecting an exciting performance from him if that fight was to happen. Meanwhile, this bout was thoroughly okay. Rakic remained heavily committed to his kick-and-move strategy, which prevented any huge moments from either man. Instead, Ankalaev slowly separated himself from the Austrian on the strength of his boxing, primarily that educated left hand. His decision win was clear, but it wasn’t exactly a “Fight of the Night” or KO win.

Hopefully, the politics are pushed aside. Ankalaev deserves his shot, and he can challenge “Poatan” in all aspects of MMA. It’s far from a washout match up though — it’s just a reasonable challenge for a fan favorite champion.

DOUBLE SPINNING BACKFIST!

For the second time in a row, I walked away from a Shara Magomedov fight thinking, “Maybe this guy is better than I thought.” Even having picked him to win, Magomedov performed at a higher level than in previous appearances.

Part of that level up is because Armen Petrosyan forced it out of him. “Superman” landed some very hard shots in this fight. The two are former training partners, and Petrosyan understood the Shara “Bullet” task. He pressed his fellow Russian to the fence, started touching his lead leg, and then entered with powerful punches. That’s exactly the correct approach, and it worked really well for a couple minutes. For a moment, an upset appeared to be brewing.

Magomedov’s speed, timing, and durability are special though. He began to attack as soon as Petrosyan initiated, firing powerful punches the moment Petrosyan inched forward. He was still getting hit, but his intercepting blows were landing a whole lot harder. Those counters stole away Petrosyan’s confidence to pressure, and he ended up stranded at range like any other Magomedov foe (though still more skilled at distance than most of them).

The finish was a cherry on top. I’m not sure the TWO spinning backfists in a row finish is anything other than throwing enough at the wall that something eventually sticks, but … it was AWESOME!

Undercard Banger of the Year?

Mateusz Rebecki vs. Myktybek Orolbai will be remembered as one of the best and bloodiest fights of 2024. Neither man wasted any time in getting the fight moving, as Orolbai walked through a lot of left hands and jabs in pursuit of his pressure. By the end of the first, his eye was already swelling badly and nearly closed.

Orolbai rebounded in the second, even if that process still involved taking plenty of heavy shots. He was able to get the wrestling going a bit, but more meaningfully, landed a few hard right hands. Entering into the third, both men were extremely bloody and quite battered from 10 hard minutes of combat.

The chaos compounded tremendously in the final five. Rebecki floored Orolbai early, nearly finishing the fight with a ridiculous flurry of blows. Somehow, Orolbai turned full zombie and just stood up in the middle of it while taking full power shots to the face! He even managed to return the favor soon afterward, hurting Rebecki and chasing the stoppage himself.

With the canvas painted red, Rebecki’s hand was raised via split-decision. A tremendous rebound for the Polish fighter, this win proves that Rebecki shouldn’t be counted out solely for losing an excellent fight to the extremely experienced Carlos Diego Ferreira.

Additional Thoughts

Ibo Aslan defeats Raffael Cerqueira via first-round knockout (highlights): Aslan just might be a problem at 205-pounds. The Turkish prospect very much walked through Cerqueira, hurting him with the first punch he threw, a quick left hook counter to an early low kick. Cerqueira backed into the fence, and Aslan chased him down with an endless combination. He mixed some shots to the body well and was snapping Cerqueira’s chin back repeatedly. The Brazilian seemed frozen in place while he took punches-in-bunches, prompting the end of the contest.
Geoff Neal defeats Rafael dos Anjos via first-round knockout: Neal looked really sharp for as long as this fight lasted. Rather than work the outside like usual, the Southpaw was on his front foot, firing in combination. His piston-like left hand floored “RDA” twice in a couple minutes, and somewhere in there, the Brazilian injured his knee too. At 40 years of age, it’s not a shock that dos Anjos is finally slowing down, but this was a great rebound for Neal nevertheless.
Abus Magomedov defeats Brunno Ferreira via third-round arm triangle choke (highlights): You may read this result and think, “Wow, Magomedov must have really improved his notoriously bad conditioning to win in the third round.” WRONG! The key here is that Ferreira’s conditioning was simply worse. Magomedov wrestled quite well in the first, got tired and bonked in the second, and then was struggling to breath to start the third. Fortunately for him, however, he was able to score a desperate takedown early in the final frame, allowing him a bit of rest and the chance to dominate a gassed opponent (rather than the opposite).
Kennedy Nzechukwu defeats Chris Barnett via first-round knockout (highlights): Well, this sucked. Fan favorite Barnett entered as a huge underdog but never got much of a chance to prove the oddsmaker’s wrong. He injured his knee jumping in the cage before the fight even started and then was a sitting duck for Nzechukwu’s combinations. Unfortunate!

For complete UFC 308 results and play-by-play, click HERE!