GDT: UFC 308: Topuria vs. Holloway

[MMC]

Date: October 26, 2024
Venue: Etihad Arena
City: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Time: 2 pm ET/11 am PT
Viewing: PPV

MAIN CARD (PPV)

Featherweight Championship bout: Ilia Topuria (c) vs. Max Holloway
Middleweight bout: Robert Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Featherweight bout: Lerone Murphy vs. Dan Ige
Light Heavyweight bout: Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Middleweight bout: Shara Magomedov vs. Armen Petrosyan

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+)

Welterweight bout: Geoff Neal vs. Rafael dos Anjos
Lightweight bout: Mateusz Rebecki vs. Myktybek Orolbai
Bantamweight bout: Said Nurmagomedov vs. TBA
Middleweight bout: Abus Magomedov vs. Brunno Ferreira

EARLY PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+)

Heavyweight bout: Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Chris Barnett
Bantamweight bout: Farid Basharat vs. Victor Hugo
Middleweight bout: Ismail Naurdiev vs. Bruno Silva
Welterweight bout: Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Carlos Leal
Light Heavyweight bout: Ibo Aslan vs. Rafael Cerqueira​

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[I am not exposed]

Great looking card.

Well I predicted Topuria would knockout Volk. But Max would retain the featherweight title because his style might be match up well against Topuria.

But the closer we get to the fight, the less confident I am in that beginning of year prediction of Max beating Topuria.

I'm really hoping Max wins! Topuria is definitely one of the most annoying fighters on the roster currently. Although I do agree with him that the Max vs. Justin fight was really only exciting for the last 10 seconds. edit. 1st round was good as well. It will probably win fight of the year, even though it should not have won fight of the night! 10 seconds out of 25 minutes should not qualify it as fight of the year!

 

[pistolpete11]

Great looking card.

Well I predicted Topuria would knockout Volk. But Max would retain the featherweight title because his style might be match up well against Topuria.

But the closer we get to the fight, the less confident I am in that beginning of year prediction of Max beating Topuria.

I'm really hoping Max wins! Topuria is definitely one of the most annoying fighters on the roster currently. Although I do agree with him that the Max vs. Justin fight was really only exciting for the last 10 seconds. edit. 1st round was good as well. It will probably win fight of the year, even though it should not have won fight of the night! 10 seconds out of 25 minutes should not qualify it as fight of the year!

Max-Gaethje wasn't that exciting outside the last 10 seconds, but that's because Max put on a clinic. Before that fight, I was worried for Max given how much damage he's taken and how willing he is to take damage. But he proved in that fight he can be defensive if he needs to be and he will need to be against Topuria IMO.

I'm like 50/50 on it. If Max is defensive again and uses his length, I could see Topuria getting frustrated and Max slowly picking him apart more and more as the fight goes on. I don't want to take anything away from Topuria, but I do get a sense that people think he kicked Volk's ass or something. He didn't, though. He lost the first round and R2 was even-ish until he found the KO. Again, not trying to take anything away from him. Beating Volk is an incredible achievement. I just wonder what happens if he can't find that that KO shot and we all know Max's durability.

On the other hand, it's hard to say what Topuria's weakness is.

Definitely pulling for Max. But I just don't know.

 

[pistolpete11]

Whittaker's situation is kind of similar to where Max was.

Former long reigning champ. Lost to the same guy a couple of times. Beats (pretty much) everybody else in the division, but wasn't going to be given another title shot until that guy lost. Now that that guy's lost, he just needs that big win to secure his title shot. That big win is kind of scary, though. Max did it against Gaethje when everybody doubted him and now Whittaker is a decent underdog against Chimaev.

Whittaker, like Max, is one of my all time favorite fighters. I hope he can pull it off, too.