Max Holloway believes the UFC protected Ilia Topuria from him and plans on showing why at UFC 308
Max Holloway and Ilia Topuria will clash in the main event of UFC 308 for the featherweight title. 'El Matador' is currently 7-0 in the promotion, and is confident he will defeat Holloway on fight night.
But the Hawaiian recently claimed that the UFC matchmakers protected Topuria from him during the Spaniard's rise through the rankings.
Since 2013, Holloway has only lost to one man at featherweight, none other than Alexander Volkanovski. During Volkanovski's title reign, Holloway dismantled all contenders as the gatekeeper for a divisional title shot.
But Holloway's move to lightweight to challenge Justin Gaethje for the BMF title at UFC 300 saw Topuria given an opportunity to fight Volkanovski for the belt, without having to pass the Hawaiian litmus test beforehand.
'El Matador' will now have a chance to face the former champion, and 'Blessed' recently discussed the title fight during a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. He said:
"A lot of people are giving Ilia heat for the strength of the schedule he had to the title fight. But he did what he's supposed to do. He won, plain and simple. He beat a guy that I had three times to beat, and he did it. But I believe the UFC made me fight every other contender at 145 [pounds] except him for a reason. And we're here now and I'm going to prove come October 26th why the UFC were shelling him away from me."
Watch Max Holloway's video below (1:10):
Ilia Topuria makes bold prediction for Max Holloway clash at UFC 308
UFC 308 will play host to arguably the most anticipated matchup of the promotion's 2024 calendar when Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway go to war. The pair will headline the card scheduled for Oct. 26, with both men confident about their chances of victory.
'Blessed' is coming off of possibly the best performance of his career, a dominant showing against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 that was capped off with a last-second knockout win.
In Topuria's previous fight, he became the first man to defeat Alexander Volkanovski at 145 pounds, when they met at UFC 298.
During a recent interview with MMA Junkie ahead of the bout, 'El Matador' shared the following prediction:
"No one could knock [Holloway] out, and I'm like, 'There's no way I'm not going to knock him out.' I will be the first one to knock him out. Everytime I watch him fight, I'm like, 'I'm way better than him.'"
Watch Ilia Topuria discuss Max Holloway below (8:38):