Sorry, Utah. Topuria vs. Holloway is headed to the United Arab Emirates in October, not Salt Lake City as initially planned.
The UFC isn’t interested in waiting around to see whether Islam Makhachev’s hand injury will allow him to compete at UFC 308 this October. Instead, they are shifting gears and moving another big fight to their annual pay-per-view card in Abu Dhabi.
According to Ilia Topuria (via Spanish news outlet Marca), the new plan is to fight Max Holloway on Fight Island. “El Matador” says the fight is verbally agreed to. And in a recent Q&A with fans on social media, Max Holloway repeatedly said the Topuria fight wasn’t looking like it would happen in Utah for UFC 307 as originally expected.
“People are saying we’re fighting in Utah,” Holloway said. “I don’t think we’re fighting in Utah … I’m gonna fight one more time this year for sure, don’t think it’s going to be Utah.”
Max Holloway says he’s going to fight one more time this year “for sure”, but doesn’t think it’ll be in Utah for #UFC307.
He also hopes to get a fight booked within the next month or next couple weeks.
KICK / @BlessedMMA #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/W3ORybkofm
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) July 29, 2024
The MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani took time off from covering the Olympics to confirm news of the switch.
“This is very real because of the injury Islam revealed in a recent interview,” he wrote. “Plans are now a changing.”
On Sunday it was revealed that Islam Makhachev had a partially torn ligament in his hand, one that may need surgery or may not. The only way to find out was to wait and see how it healed. He sounded hopeful that it would be ready in time for October, where he’s been expected to defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan. But it seems like the UFC is not willing to cross its fingers and hope for the best when it’s got another big fight it can slot into the event.
Ilia Topuria hasn’t fought since knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in February to win the UFC featherweight title. A fight with new BMF belt holder Max Holloway was the obvious next match-up to do ever since “Blessed” stole the show at UFC 300 in a fight of the year contender against Justin Gaethje.
With the UFC in Abu Dhabi this week for UFC on ABC: Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov, we wouldn’t be surprised if the promotion gets this fight from verbally agreed to fully signed so they can announce it on fight night. The only question remaining after that: what fight will they place at the head of UFC 307 in Utah now that UFC 308 has poached Topuria vs. Holloway?