UFC 308: Topuria vs Holloway - Oct 26 ??

[Egg Shen]

Quick picks for the weekend:

Topuria Decision (or late TKO)

Whittaker TKO

Ige Decision

Ankalaev Decision

Petrosyan Decision

[wandshogun09]

We made it. And look at those sexy start times ?

[Egg Shen]

Sensational, enjoy lads

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Who's watching this via legitimate channels? As it's an early start, I have decided to pay for it as it's worth it. We are lucky in the UK that we usually get them with a TNT Sports subscription.

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

Who's watching this via legitimate channels? 

[Kfogg1991]

Oh my Christ literally anyone walking this planet doubting khamzat sit down and shut the f**k up because he once again took 0 shots or damage against a man like Whittaker and not only submitted him round 1 he absolutely dismantled his jaw just in case anyone even tries to argue or give doubt about that man.

 

I severely hope with what he just did he is going to be next for the belt against DDP over Strickland and I adore Strickland but no more can khamzat be denied and disrespected what he has done in this company is astonishing for one but unmatched as well 

 

Max being knocked out for the first time ever killed me watching on stage at work but illija is no joke and this destroys me but volk won't fair better a second time and I can't emotionally take that.

 

I'll comment more on Monday after a full day of sleep because I'm dying from jetlag and full night at work.

 

What a untouchable sport we love 

[Bruce85]

This was the first ufc I’ve found the time to watch from start to finish in ages and I really enjoyed it (the start time certainly helped!).

Although it was sad to see Holloway and Whitaker lose it’s definitely good for both divisions in way of fresh match ups. 
 

After Topurias performance last night I really don’t fancy Volks chances in a rematch. At the point I think I’d rather see Lopez get the next shot rather than watch Volk getting KO’d again! 
 

 

[Dai]

Even though it was a super impressive showing from Chimaev, I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see Whitaker take him into deeper waters. Despite an unbelievable win, the same questions will be asked about him next fight, namely how well does he do if you survive his first round avalanche. That question wasn't answered this fight, but still, what dominance. 

Max looked good, but just got caught with a bomb. Again, would have liked for it to get into R4 and 5 as that's when Max really shines. Certainly didn't disgrace himself with this performance.

Enjoyed all the other main card fights. The highlight obviously being the double back fist. Unbelievable! Am waiting on Wands inevitable gif of it so I can save it and enjoy forever. 

[Egg Shen]

A Topuria title defence in Spain is going to be some spectacle.

[wandshogun09]

Real mixed emotions coming out of this one. There probably aren’t two gooder eggs in MMA than Max Holloway and Robert Whittaker so to see them both not only lose but in such brutal fashion made for rough viewing. But at the same time, the performances from Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev were so impressive. As much of a gut punch as it was seeing Holloway and Whittaker get put away like that, the sadness is mixed with excitement for what’s to come for Topuria and Chimaev.

Ilia Topuria is something special. To come off KOing Alexander Volkanovski to win the title, and then follow that up by becoming the first man to knock out the notoriously iron chinned Max Holloway is something else. It really is. Honestly if Topuria can keep his head on straight and stay focused and injury free, the sky is really the limit. He’s still only 27 years old, now 16-0 and has just scored maybe the best two back-to-back wins in MMA history. I genuinely don’t know if there’s been a case of another fighter having a two fight stretch this impressive, given the skill level of the opposition and the performances he had against both. Unreal. And it wasn’t like Max looked bad out there. Not at all. He was landing and looking sharp, think I had him winning the first round, I had Topuria taking the second and then it was all over in the third. They were both connecting with good stuff and it was one of the better fights you’ll see as far as MMA Boxing goes. Great fight while it lasted. Really high level stuff as expected. But Topuria’s dialled in like few I’ve ever seen at the moment. In the end, Topuria’s power seemed to be the difference maker. No-one’s standing up to flush shots like that off him for long. If Holloway couldn’t stand up to it, I don’t see who can at 145 if Topuria lands clean. And the mad thing is, Topuria was known as more of a grappler when he entered the UFC. There’s layers to his game we haven’t really seen yet.

This has been an ongoing discussion on social media since Saturday. I love Pereira but I don’t even know why this is a debate. As impressive as what Pereira’s done this year is, it doesn’t come close to back-to-back knockouts over two of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen, does it? Pereira’s gone 3-0 to Topuria’s 2-0 this year but surely the level of competition matters? Quality over quantity. The argument for Pereira seems to be all based on him taking short notice fights and ‘saving cards’ and being a ‘gangster’. But that doesn’t work for me. Yeah, he jumped in on short notice and what he’s done is impressive. I’m not saying it counts for nothing. But people talk like it was only Pereira coming in under those conditions. His opponents weren’t getting a full camp either. Knocking out fully prepared versions of Volk and Max pisses all over wins over shitehawk Hill, last minute Jiri and #8 ranked Rountree. I think it’s just a case of a lot of fans liking Pereira and not liking Topuria so they’re trying to twist it to suit their agenda. Topuria’s the Fighter Of The Year for me easy. If he’d squeaked a controversial decision over Max here, maybe I could see the argument for Pereira. But to knock Volkanovski and Holloway out in about an 8 month span, how is he not Fighter Of The Year?

Looking like Topuria vs Volk 2 next. I’m not in love with it but it’s Volk, can’t begrudge him a rematch given the reign he had. I do like that Volk’s taken a break after those Makhachev and Topuria losses. Maybe he needed that. Can’t see it ending with a different result though but we’ll see. Another option for Topuria is Diego Lopes. He’s right up there in the rankings now and he actually weighed in as the official backup on this card. So he’s close to a title shot himself. I think Topuria would be too slick for him but who knows? Lopes is dangerous and unpredictable. I’d love to see it. Then there’s talk of Topuria moving up to 155 for a Superfight against Islam Makhachev. I know it seems way too soon for that talk and usually I’d agree but, really, after stopping Volk and Max the way he did, he can’t be far off being able to just call his own shot. If he beats Volk again and beats Lopes, I wouldn’t mind seeing him and Makhachev if Makhachev’s still holding the gold at 155 by then. Never even thought of Topuria vs Makhachev before but what a fascinating fight that would be.

As for Max, all signs from him are pointing towards him moving up to 155 permanently now. He was strongly hinting at it to the media post-fight and, let’s be honest, what’s left for him at 145? He’s effectively locked out of the title mix now anyway and probably wouldn’t get another shot for a while. But he’s already pretty much fought everyone. There’s literally only Diego Lopes I’d wanna see him fight at 145 now but that probably isn’t on the table now either. And that weight cut to 145 won’t be getting any easier. Sack it off and move up. He proved against Gaethje he can more than hang and compete at the weight and there’s a bunch of fresh and exciting fights there for him. Holloway vs Poirier 3 has been brought up, seems a bit pointless with Poirier already 2-0 up but I’d never complain about seeing those two face off. Holloway vs Chandler seems like a natural matchup to make and a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Holloway vs Oliveira 2 would be amazing. And as unlikely as it probably is at this point, I’d love to see Max get that McGregor rematch before it’s all said and done if they can somehow get Conor off the crack pipe and into the cage again. Honestly, I’d much prefer to see McGregor vs Holloway 2 over McGregor vs Chandler anyway.

Khamzat was fucking terrifying. I think a lot of people kind of forgot how scary he can be due to how that Usman fight played out and then all the health issues and gaps in activity. This was crazy though. To just run over Robert Whittaker like that? Nobody’s ever done that to Bobby Knuckles. Ever.

Just wall to wall domination and a first round finish to top it off. Stunning performance. But like @Dai rightly says, as incredible as this was, the same questions on Khamzat remain unanswered. It’s crazy to say but we really didn’t learn anything new about Khamzat here. He’s always been one of the strongest starters in the game. If he gets off to a flying start, he has the capability to do this to a lot of fighters. The shock was that he did it to someone as good as Whittaker but there’s always a very real chance of any Khamzat fight playing out this way. He’s just that much of a force early on when he’s fresh. My first reaction to the finish was I was a bit baffled why Whittaker tapped so fast. He was tapping immediately so you knew something was wrong. Well fuck…

Khamzat just mangled the poor sod’s mouth. Think I saw something from Whittaker saying it wasn’t so much his jaw that got hurt, Khamzat just literally crushed his teeth inwards. Can you imagine? Khamzat said he could hear something going snap, crackle, pop while he was synching up on it as well. Nasty stuff.

On 10/27/2024 at 1:42 AM, Kfogg1991 said:

Oh my Christ literally anyone walking this planet doubting khamzat sit down and shut the f**k up 

Nope. I will not. ?

On 10/27/2024 at 1:42 AM, Kfogg1991 said:

just in case anyone even tries to argue or give doubt about that man. 

It’s not that people are doubting him. Like with any undefeated fighter, it’s natural that people will look for weaknesses and speculate about how they might eventually be beaten. Whether you like it or not, it’s a fact that, based on what we’ve seen, it appears that Khamzat doesn’t maintain that same level of scariness and dominance when he gets deeper into a fight. The Burns and Usman fights being the best examples of that. Now granted, actually getting him to go deep into a fight is a mammoth task. Surviving that first round is obviously much easier said than done and I don’t think many are up to it. If he can do what he did here to Robert Bastard Whittaker then it’s safe to assume he can do it to a lot of fighters, even at the elite level, because Whittaker is a top tier operator at 185 and has been for years. This fight didn’t reveal anything about Khamzat that we didn’t already know though. We knew going in that he’s an absolute monster in the early part of a fight.

I said this myself in the opening post…

On 9/22/2024 at 7:49 PM, wandshogun09 said:

I’ve got no doubt Whittaker is tough enough to potentially take whatever Khamzat throws at him for 5 minutes but I also believe Khamzat is dangerous enough early that he can finish almost anyone in that opening round if he gets into a good position on the ground or something.

Nobody was shitting on Khamzat. We were all fully aware of the threat he poses to pretty much anyone in his weight range. But until we see evidence that he can be anywhere close to as dangerous as that later in a fight, there’ll always be questions. He couldn’t put Burns away early and got dragged into a competitive war. He couldn’t put short notice Usman away early and Usman arguably won the following two rounds after Khamzat’s initial onslaught didn’t work. And had Whittaker been able to get through that first round and maybe the second, I’ve got no doubt Khamzat would’ve started getting a bit less scary and Whittaker might’ve been able to get back in the fight. But like my self quote above says there, Khamzat is the kind of fast starter that can potentially put anyone away if he gets rolling early and gets in a good position while fresh. With the way the Burns and Usman fights played out as they went on, and with Khamzat’s well documented history of health problems, you can’t blame people for asking questions and wondering if he’d ever realise that initial potential he had coming in during those lockdown cards in 2020. And even now, as awesome as this win was, he might just get sick again now, sit out another year and lose all this momentum. Sadly we’ve been conditioned at this point to expect disappointment from Khamzat. Whether it’s inactivity due to bad health (which I get isn’t his fault), or blatantly deliberate weight missing (which is obviously his fault), you can’t count on him. Hopefully this Whittaker win will be the start of him turning the corner and finding some consistency. Because an active and healthy Khamzat is great for the sport and the Middleweight division especially.

With all that said and as much as I know you can’t always rely on him to make it through a training camp, I’d throw Khamzat straight into a title shot now. I know the talk going into this card was that the plan was to do DDP vs Strickland 2 next. I think Dana was saying that himself. Fuck Strickland though. Who in their right mind would wanna see a DDP vs Strickland rematch over DDP vs Khamzat at this point? Strickland’s panicking…

He can see the title shot slipping away ? Prick. I really hope they go with DDP vs Khamzat. Way more interesting fight and the way Khamzat’s just bulldozed Whittaker, I don’t see how you can make the argument that Prickland deserves it more. He’s already lost to DDP and all he’s done since is beat Costa in one of the worst fights of the year. Doesn’t stack up to Khamzat steamrolling Whittaker in a round at all.

To the surprise of nobody, Whittaker’s handling the loss like a boss…

Not sure what’s next for him but, once he’s healed up, now seems as good a time as any to do that Whittaker vs Usman fight a few of us were on about not too long ago. Failing that, I wouldn’t be against Whittaker vs Strickland if they do go the DDP vs Khamzat route.

Ankalaev vs Rakic was the one dull spot on the main card for me. Kind of expected though. Not like either are known for having bangers. Ankalaev definitely won though and, like him or not, I’m not sure how you can pass him over for a title shot at this point. He’s ranked #1, he’s a fresh fight for Pereira and the three names directly under him in the rankings have already lost to Pereira. Not to mention he’s the only man in the Top 5 even coming off a win!

 

Yeah, he’s not great to watch. So what? I’ve actually seen people suggesting Pereira should rematch Jan Blachowicz now, which is hilarious to me. Blachowicz hasn’t fought in well over a year, which was the loss to Pereira. Before that was the draw with Ankalaev and Ankalaev is ranked higher than him. What’s the issue? The only reason I can think why people are so against Pereira vs Ankalaev is that they think Pereira might lose. I don’t necessarily agree, I think Pereira can definitely win that one. It’s not like Ankalaev’s some amazing wrestler. But it would be an interesting and risky one. If Pereira fans were genuinely confident he beats Ankalaev, surely they’d want him to just chin him. To shut Ankalaev up if nothing else. With how active Pereira is, I don’t see how he can fight multiple times next year and still not defend against the #1 ranked guy in Ankalaev. It’s not like there’s another fight at 205 that’s even an obvious big PPV seller either, where you could use the boring ‘business’ argument to go with someone else. What are we doing here?

Murphy vs Ige was a good fight. Feels like Murphy’s finally making some progress now after the slowest of rises. The Barboza win and now beating Ige, both in entertaining fights as well, has done more for his stock than the rest of his career combined. He did well to survive that big knockdown in the first round and he came back strong in the second and third. Solid win over a dangerous opponent. He’s saying he wants Josh Emmett next in February. I’m up for that.

Shara Bullet wins another one and stays undefeated but the questions remain. Fun way to kick off the main card though. I know I’m a broken record when it comes to Shara now but I’m still waiting for them to match him up with someone who isn’t just gonna stand and trade with him. I thought Petrosyan would be that guy to mix it up, to be fair. He is a striker but certainly capable of some grappling and, knowing that’s Shara’s weakness, I’m baffled nobody’s testing him in that area. Maybe in this case, the fact Petrosyan had some early success in the striking made him forget about the takedown and made him more focused on chasing the knockout. As it turned out, he did find the KO. It’s just that it was him on the receiving end.

21 hours ago, Dai said:

The highlight obviously being the double back fist. Unbelievable! Am waiting on Wands inevitable gif of it so I can save it and enjoy forever. 

Because I like you, you can have two angles of it…

Was a beauty, to be fair. Never seen that before. Closest I can think of is when Petr Yan hit Sandhagen with a backfist and then rolled straight into a second one. But this one from Shara, going one way and then the opposite, was new on me. He’s an entertaining fighter to watch. Despite me banging on about his flaws and the careful matchmaking, he’s yet to bore me since signing with the UFC. I just wanna see a bit more from him. More than just these standup fights. I liked his callout of Israel Adesanya, I’d be very interested to watch that fight. Certainly happier with the Izzy callout than when he called out Nick Diaz last time. Not sure Izzy goes for it though. He might. He’s out of the title picture now and Shara would be a fun fight, he’s a striker so I’d assume an appealing matchup for Izzy, and he’s gaining a bit of a following and is unbeaten. Adesanya handing him his first loss wouldn’t be the worst way to bounce back from those Strickland/DDP losses. Can’t see it happening but you never know.

Ibo Aslan just smoked Cerqueira in seconds. Not much else to say about it. Don’t see him going far but he’s certainly heavy handed and aggressive and the 205 division could do with as many fighters like that as it can get. Wouldn’t mind seeing him and Cutelaba throw down.

Gutted for Dos Anjos. To lose a fight like that is shit enough as it is but on the very day of his 40th birthday as well? I don’t know if he came into the fight already with the injury but he wasn’t moving right on it even before the knee went out. Hasn’t stopped the mouth breathers on Twitter saying he took a dive though ? Not the way Geoff Neal would’ve wanted to win this fight but what can you do? Sounds bad but this almost felt like the universe telling RDA it’s time to call it a day. To suffer an injury like that so early in the fight on the day of your 40th. It’s like something is trying to tell him, you’re too old for this shite now, Raf. I’ve got no doubt he’ll fight again, he’s already said as much. But I’m hoping the end is soon. Maybe one more fight on a Brazil card whenever he heals up. Fuck knows where Neal goes after this. It was the kind of ‘win’ that wasn’t a win. Like Blaydes vs Aspinall 1. One of those anti-climactic endings which does nothing for either fighter.

Rebecki vs Orolbai was an absolute war. I expected a good fight but nothing like this. They completely battered each other and both showed insane toughness and a refusal to quit. Orolbai’s eye was all kinds of messed up but he wouldn’t fuck off and he got some measure of revenge by busting Rebecki open.

The kind of fight that knocks a few years off a career this was. Massive respect to both. Rebecki took the split decision in the end, I don’t know, I completely lost track of the scoring and just got swept up in the slobberknocker. Hopefully they both take a break after this. You don’t wanna be rushing back after a fight like this. Rebecki was already coming off that bad beating from Carlos Diego Ferreira as well, last thing he needed was another dogfight like this in his next fight. Although this one being a win for him will obviously take the edge off the cuts, bruises and pain he’ll be in for the next couple of weeks. Love Orolbai as well. What a tough bastard. After just a few fights in the UFC, he’s firmly on my ‘must watch’ list.

Quite enjoyed the Abus Magomedov vs Brunno Ferreira fight. For a mid/low level Middleweight fight, it was pretty fun. Ferreira's the type who seems to be able to drag a watchable fight out of almost anyone. It was definitely the most watchable Abus has been for a while anyway. Nice comeback from Abus, to be fair. Ferreira had him hurt a few times so Abus rallying with the late sub was more than I expected from him. Thought he’d fold when it got rough like he did against Strickland but he toughed it out and found the finish. Still don’t particularly rate him but he did well to get through some adversity here.

Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Chris Barnett. Deary me. Both seem like good guys and I like both but it’s not like I went into this fight with high expectations. What a mess though. Barnett waited 2 years to finally get back in the cage and does his ankle during the Buffer intros…

Love the bloke but what was he thinking? Jumping about like that at that size! Apparently that wasn’t the injury that led to him getting finished though. He’s said post-fight that he hurt his leg while throwing the spinning kick. Again though, you’re kind of asking for your knee to buckle expecting to put all that weight on one leg like that. Felt bad for Barnett but I don’t think this one was ending well for him regardless. Thought he was looking awful in the early exchanges and, while Nzechukwu’s not great himself, with the height difference and the fact Barnett couldn’t really get near him, Nzechukwu had no business losing this fight. Shite for Barnett though. I don’t know how severe the injury is but to come back off a 2 year layoff to immediately get sent straight back to the injured list is rotten.

Farid Basharat stays unbeaten. Nothing spectacular about what he does but he’s getting the job done and this fight had its moments. Hugo was just looking for that one shot that never came though and Farid was able to outwork him pretty comfortably. Seen Farid’s called for a fight with Jose Aldo next. I get why he wants that fight and I can’t blame him for trying but, Christ, I hope they don’t go that route. Aldo’s surely got a limited number of fights left in him competing at a strong level, I don’t wanna see any more of those fights wasted on guys nobody’s interesting in seeing him against. Seriously, there’s nobody on the planet outside Basharat’s camp who wants to see him against Aldo. There are so many fun fights to be made with Aldo at 135 or even 145 - Cruz, Cejudo, O’Malley, Sandhagen, Barboza, Yair etc. Can we have one of them? Is that too much to ask?

Ismail Naurdiev looked alright in his UFC return, although I’m not sure how much of it was down to Bruno Silva just floundering at the moment. Feel bad for Bruno, I was hoping he’d get back in the win column here after that Weidman debacle. Naurdiev won clearly though.

Fakhretdinov vs Leal was a decent prelim opener. Didn’t think it was the barnburner the commentators were making it out to be but definitely more watchable than some of Rinat’s previous fights. Think Leal’s aggression forced the action more. Quite liked Leal here. Wasn’t pretty but he was going for it, he stepped in on short notice and probably should’ve got the decision. I wasn’t scoring it properly so not gonna say it was an outright robbery but I was a bit surprised to see Rinat get his hand raised.



Yeah, pretty enjoyable card all round even despite the downers of the main and co-main results. Always helps when you can watch a big show like this at a reasonable hour as well, of course.

Edited October 28, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

I wouldn't mind seeing Chimaev or Whittaker vs. Strickland. 

Actually, rephrase that: I wouldn't want to see it, I'd just want to know that they happened and that Strickland either got butchered within the first thirty seconds, or was slowly and methodically shredded over the course of the match before being brutally knocked out before the end.

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I wouldn't mind seeing Chimaev or Whittaker vs. Strickland. 

Chimaev and Strickland trained together at some point, might’ve actually been a one-off thing, and there was a video of them after training where Strickland was proper kissing Khamzat’s arse. So you can kind of guess who probably got that best of that training session. Could actually be an intriguing fight down the line because, for all Strickland’s many faults, he’s at least got a gas tank so if he could get through Khamzat’s opening round assault (BIG if), things could get very interesting.

It can’t be next though because one of them’s gotta be next up for DDP.

While I’m here, nicked this off Twitter…

[Egg Shen]

The whole travel thing is gonna be a hindrance so I think they'll do DDP/Strickland first

[Egg Shen]

Mental fucker

 

[Carbomb]

What's particularly impressive about Magomedov's striking is that he's only fighting with one eye. Obviously not an expert, so couldn't say with certainty, but I'd imagine the lack of depth perception is less of a problem with grappling-based styles, but striking requires precision, so for him to do a Joe Frazier and pull out these highlight reel finishes is definitely an accomplishment.