According to Dana White, there is one bad thing about the
highly-anticipated featherweight championship clash between
Ilia
Topuria and Max
Holloway.
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“This Topuria-Holloway fight is terrible because when you like both
guys and they actually have to go in there, and somebody has to
lose – it sucks,” White recently said on the Outta Pocket with
RGIII podcast.
“Max Holloway is one of the greatest ever to do it and just one of
the nicest dudes, he has the BMF belt, and he is a BMF. Topuria has
been an absolute rockstar. It’s gonna be a fun fight. I hate to see
somebody lose that fight.”
Topuria vs. Holloway Saturday at 2 PM ET on ESPN+. Order
Now!
Topuria will defend his featherweight crown against Holloway in the
UFC
308 headliner at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Topuria
is unbeaten in 15 professional bouts and is coming off a
second-round stoppage of Alexander
Volkanovski to claim featherweight gold at UFC 298 this past
featherweight.
Holloway, meanwhile, has been victorious in five of his last six
Octagon appearances. Perhaps no performance raised his stock more
than his fight against Justin
Gaethje at UFC 300, where he scored a memorable fifth-round
knockout to claim the BMF belt. That victory occurred at 155
pounds, but “Blessed” will be returning to featherweight on
Saturday in hopes of another championship reign.
“His only move up in weight where he looked really good was
Gaethje… When he was younger, he had that lean body build,” White
said. “He’s filled out a little bit since he’s gotten older. 100%
[he looks different] and different from when he fought [Dustin]
Poirier too, it’s an interesting fight – a very interesting fight.”