Home Sport Dana White announces stacked UFC 308 card including Khamzat Chimaev return and Max Holloway title shot

Dana White announces stacked UFC 308 card including Khamzat Chimaev return and Max Holloway title shot

Sport — 04/08/2024 · 0 Comment

Dana White has announced part of the UFC 308 card – and it’s absolutely stacked.

The event, which is set to take place at Fight Island in Abu Dhabi on October 26, will be headlined by a UFC featherweight title fight between champion Ilia Topuria and 145lbs great Max Holloway.

Holloway gets another shot at UFC gold, this time against TopuriaCredit: UFC

Topuria won the belt by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in February and is set to make his first defence of the title against Holloway, who recently flatlined Justin Gaethje to become the UFC “BMF” champion.

Holloway holds the record for the most significant strikes landed in UFC history and previously reigned as featherweight champion from 2017 to 2019.

The co-feature attraction, sees Khamzat Chimaev return to the UFC Octagon for the first time in a year against Robert Whittaker.

Both men were supposed to square off on June 22 but Chimaev fell ill.

Instead, Whittaker accepted a fight with dangerous up-and-comer Ikram Aliskerov on short notice.

He went on to knock out the Russian in the first round and has now been booked to face Chimaev again in a five-round middleweight scrap.

Elsewhere on the bill, No.2 ranked heavyweight Cyril Gane takes on No.3 ranked Alexander Volkov.

The heavyweight division is currently being held up by the rescheduling of Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic for the world title, while interim champion Tom Aspinall is expected to face the winner.

But whoever emerges victorious between Gane and Volkov will find themself in a strong position to challenge for the title when it becomes available.

Completing the stacked main card is a light-heavyweight clash between Aleksandar Rakic and Magomed Ankalaev.

Whittaker vs Chimaev has been rescheduledCredit: UFC

Rakic is ranked No.5 in the world at 205lbs but is on a two-fight skid against Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka.

Meanwhile, Ankalaev is ranked No.2 and is 11-1-1 under the UFC banner and 18-1-1 overall.

According to MMA Fighting, Lerone Murphy vs Dan Ige is set to be rebooked for the same card although White didn’t announce the fight in his social media video.

The featherweight showdown was initially supposed to take place in February at UFC Vegas 86.

However, the fight was scrapped after Murphy suffered an injury.

Ige went on to knock out replacement opponent Andre Fili and then lost to Diego Lopes in June, while Murphy returned to action in May with a unanimous decision win over Edson Barboza.