UFC 308 LIVE: Ilia Topuria defends title against Max Holloway in featherweight blockbuster

The UFC 308 prelims are under way! Our live, round-by-round fight updates will begin any moment now.

Both of tonight’s main-event fighters occupy spots in our pound-for-pound rankings…

But which spots? Find out where Topuria and Holloway rank for us, right here:

Whittaker and Chimaev were due to clash in June, but the latter withdrew on short notice due to “violent” illness.

Whittaker went on to stop Ikram Aliskerov in round one, before speaking to The Independent about the entire episode.

Here’s our conversation with the Australian:

Khamzat Chimaev has opened up on the ‘difficulty’ of seeing his one-year-old son deal with health issues – a physical battle that the fighter knows all too well.

Chimaev is 13-0 in MMA with 11 finishes, and he stormed to 3-0 in the UFC with three fights in two months in 2020. That run led fans to predict that the Russian-born Swede would race to a title at welterweight or middleweight – his preferred divisions – but Chimaev’s career has been stop-start since.

The 30-year-old contracted Covid in December 2020 and has continued to battle lingering effects of the illness, fighting just four times in the last four years. And now, Chimaev is tasked with keeping his young son healthy, as well as himself.

Ahead of UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, where Chimaev resides and where he will fight Robert Whittaker tonight, the “Wolf” spoke to ESPN.

Here’s what he had to say:

‘C’ denotes champion; card subject to late changes…

Ilia Topuria (C) vs Max Holloway (featherweight title)

Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev (middleweight)

Lerone Murphy vs Dan Ige (featherweight)

Magomed Ankalaev vs Aleksandar Rakic (light-heavyweight)

Shara Magomedov vs Armen Petrosyan (middleweight)

Ibo Aslan vs Rafael Cerqueira (light-heavyweight)

Geoff Neal vs Rafael dos Anjos (welterweight)

Mateusz Rebecki vs Myktybek Orolbai (lightweight)

Abus Magomedov vs Brunno Ferreira (middleweight)

Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Chris Barnett (heavyweight)

Faris Basharat vs Victor Hugo (bantamweight)

Ismail Naurdiev vs Bruno Silva (middleweight)

Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Carlos Leal (welterweight)

The card will air live on TNT Sports Box Office in the UK at a cost of £19.99, with the broadcaster’s app and website also streaming the fights. Discovery+ will also air the action in the UK.

In the US, ESPN+ will stream the event live, as will the UFC’s Fight Pass.

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UFC 308 takes place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE, tonight.

The prelims are due to begin at 3pm BST (7am PT, 9am CT, 10am ET), with the main card following at 7pm BST (11am PT, 1pm CT, 2pm ET).

In doing so, he achieved what Max Holloway could not accomplish in three fights; the Hawaiian lost the belt to Volkanovski in 2019 and failed to regain it in two rematches, losing all three bouts via decision.

However, Holloway tends to bounce back well, and his current winning streak peaked in April, when he dominated Justin Gaethje before faceplanting him in the very last second – securing the ‘Baddest Motherf*****’ belt with an all-time great KO.