UFC 308 takeaways -- Topuria delivers on promise, Chimaev ready for middleweight crown - ESPN

A 13-fight card at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi was headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Ilia Topuria and former champ Max Holloway. Topuria, Khamzat Chimaev and Magomed Ankalaev emerged as big winners from the night, but what's next for each fighter? To make sense of it all, Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim offer their final takeaways on a dramatic night of fights.

Ilia Topuria has made only this one defense of his featherweight championship, but in Saturday's UFC 308 main event, he accomplished a lot. First, he did something no fighter had ever done. Then he did something this sport could use much more of.

By knocking out Max Holloway, Topuria did what the sport's leading purveyor of violence, Justin Gaethje, could not do. He did what a parade of former UFC champions from Alexander Volkanovski to José Aldo, Frankie Edgar to Anthony Pettis and Charles Oliveira to Conor McGregor could not. Volkanovski and Aldo, two of the greatest featherweights ever, had multiple shots and couldn't get it done.

But Topuria did, and his stunning third-round KO dealt a blow that had not happened in the previous 33 fights in Holloway's career. «Blessed» had never previously even been knocked off his feet.

Topuria now stands in a category of one. That's the kind of thing people say about fighters who are considered the greatest ever in their weight class. And while it's premature to anoint the 27-year-old Spaniard as the featherweight GOAT, even if you couple this performance with the knockout of Volkanovski back in February that made him the champion, Topuria is headed in that distinguished direction by leaps and bounds.

No less notable than the knockout performance, though, was the class that Topuria showed in