UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria returns to the Octagon for the second time this year, opposite Max Holloway, the former champion and current ‘BMF’ champion, in the main event of UFC 308 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
Topuria (15-0 MMA) has quickly entered the UFC scene, winning all seven fights since making his promotional debut in 2020. He won the belt in February against then-champion Alexander Volkanovski (26-4 MMA), becoming the first Georgian UFC champion. He is now joined by newly minted UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA), who is also from the region.
Top 15 featherweights meet in the middle of the main card as Lerone Murphy looks to remain undefeated when he takes on UFC 303 hero Dan Ige.
“I’ve just been getting better, you know, my focus is always on getting better and how can we learn from our past fights and I believe I’ve I’ve been doing a great job. I’m in great shape. Everything’s on the weight cut is going great and hopefully we get in there and claim a win,” Ige said in an exclusive interaction with Sportstar.
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A consummate pro and rankings fixture, Ige had a breakout moment in June, jumping into a fight with Diego Lopes on four hours’ notice, pushing the Brazilian every step of the way while landing on the wrong side of 29-28 scores across the board.
Ige says he had no second thoughts when the fight came his way and accepting it was a concious decision. “There was no thinking. You just have to show up and fight. It’s like the best way to put it. Is if you’re. In school and you find out you’re gonna have to fight somebody after school, and then you go to the to the playground and get in a fist fight,” Ige said with a grin.
“I think I’ve just shown that I’m a resilient warrior, who’s able to constantly get better, even from defeat, come back stronger and better. My story’s not done yet. My career is not over yet and there’s still a story to be told,” he added.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Murphy enters with a 6-0-1 record inside the Octagon and sporting a 14-0-1 mark overall. His first four UFC appearances took place in Abu Dhabi, and in May he picked up his biggest win to date by out-working Edson Barboza over five rounds.
Ige and Murphy were supposed to take each other on earlier this year in February but the fight got scrapped due to various reasons.
Main Event: Ilia Topuria vs Max Holloway
Other Main Card Matches:
Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev
Lerone Murphy vs Dan Ige
Magomed Ankalaev vs Aleksandar Rakić
Shara Magomedov vs Armen Petrosyan
The UFC 308: Topuria vs Halloway will be streamed live on the Sony LIV app/website. The event will also be telecast live across the Sony Sports Network. The main card starts at 7:30am IST on Sunday.
