UFC 308 went down this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 26, 2024) from inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Armen Petrosyan, who fell victim to a rare double spinning backfist knockout courtesy of his former training partner, Shara Magomedov (see it again here).
And Robert Whittaker, who was on the wrong end of a very violent and painful submission defeat at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev, who broke “The Reaper’s” jaw with a powerful face crank (relive it here). But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Coming into his headlining fight against Featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, “Blessed” was riding high on confidence thanks to his last-second (literally) knockout win over Justin Gaethje to win the “BMF” title. Plus, he had championship experience on his side because this was his tenth title fight.
It wasn’t enough.
From the opening seconds of the fight, Topuria set the pace of how it was going to go, challenging “Blessed” to meet him in the center of the cage for a good old fire-fight. Surprisingly, Holloway didn’t engage and opted to play the calm, cool approach.
Once they began warming up, Topuria starting landing his shots, though Holloway wasn’t too far behind, using his volume attack to possibly steal round one. Undeterred, Topuria stuck to his strategy and started to find his range on the lanky fighter. In round three, he really started to get confident and rocked “Blessed” with a massive right hand that had him reeling. From there, he started to unload, calmly, one big shot after another until he landed a left hook that proved to be the kill shot.
It was the first time any fighter had ever stopped Holloway via strikes in the Hawaiian’s near 15-year professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career. And just like that, Topuria’s star got even brighter, while Holloway’s stock took a big hit.
After the fight, Holloway talked about the loss and what could be next for him, including a potential move to Lightweight.
“We’re all going to sit down with the team, relax,” he said during the post-fight presser. “There’s nothing needed to be rushing back to right now. But, I can try coming back in the summer, the big July card, right, in Vegas? Do something. We’ll see what happens. I mean, 155 looks really good right now.
“Like I said, I had the best 145 cut here,” he added. “But what else is there to do? I had a couple times to reclaim it. New guys coming up. Yeah, that’d be fun. But, I think 155 looks more fun, fighting more, the caliber, everyone there, and the names there, it looks really exciting to put my name in the mix.”
“Blessed” has already accomplished so much in his career at Featherweight that perhaps a permanent move up to 155 pounds is the best move. He won’t be getting another title shot at 145 pounds anytime soon, so perhaps he can make one last run at gold in a different division.
It won’t be easy because there are a lot of sharks in the division who would love nothing more than to add someone like Holloway to their hit list. As far as who could be realistic for him, a fight against the loser of the upcoming rematch between Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira — who are set to throw down at UFC 309 next month — could be in order. You can’t just pare Holloway with any old body, for someone with his resume it has to be a fighter with a big name and championship experience, and Chandler and Oliveira both fit the bill perfectly.
Unless, of course, you have a better idea?
For complete UFC 308 results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.