An upset for the ages just isn’t enough for Max Holloway, the former featherweight champion looking to do it again at UFC 308.

Holloway faced a tough fight at UFC 300 in April, where he met feared BMF champion Justin Gaethje a weight class up. Despite the odds stacked against him, Holloway would shock the world on his return to lightweight, knocking out the world’s No. 2 contender in the closing seconds of what was already a dominant display from the Hawaiian’s fight.

(Exclusive) Max Holloway discusses BMF Belt vs Ilia Topuria in absentia

His world, his oyster, Holloway now enters a featherweight title fight with newly crowned champion Ilia Topuria as a slight betting underdog.

That’s likely due to Topuria’s momentum, which is comparable to Holloway’s, as he was the first man to ever defeat Alexander Volkanovski at 145 pounds, knocking out the longtime champion at UFC 298 in February.

“It’s good, man. I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t,” Holloway said. Knockout MMA in a recent interview. “It’s great. He’s a champion right now for a reason. Great boxing. Wise, I think he’s just a great mixed martial artist. I think he has great wrestling, super explosive, great jiu-jitsu. I’m glad to see. I can’t wait to test all these things.

While Topuria comes from a Greco-Roman wrestling background, many pundits are quick to rate Topuria’s hands as a boxer and compare his power and speed to Conor McGregor, the former featherweight champion who defeated Holloway in the race undefeated in the title years ago.

Absorbing a UFC record number of strikes (and inflicting even more damage on his opponents himself), Holloway can still say he’s never been knocked out in his career before a fight with the very dangerous Topuria.

“The number one thing that keeps standing out, everybody keeps talking about his boxing, his power… We’ll see what happens. To hurt someone, you need to have power shots. So at the end of the day, I can, ‘I can’t wait to go out there and mix with them.’

Ilia Topuria’s complex puzzle has yet to be unravelled, with 15 fighters trying and failing to get past ‘El Matador’.

However, Holloway has beaten the seemingly unbeatable before, becoming the first fighter to TKO 14-0 Brian Ortega in 2018. “Blessed” will do his best to defeat the 15-0 Topuria this time this.

“Styles make fights. People make fights,” Holloway said, when asked if being undefeated makes Topuria different as a fighter. “Sometimes you show up, sometimes you don’t in a fight. If you’re undefeated, you’re undefeated and you have all the confidence in the world, which is respected.”

“At the end of the day, I’ve taken a bunch of people’s 0s. This man is no different,” Holloway said of Topuria. “(He’ll) bleed red, just like me. So, I can’t wait to get out there and do my thing.”

Max Holloway has twice the experience of Ilia Topuria (who is five years younger) having fought wave after wave of featherweight contenders and several former interim lightweight champions in Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje.

Holloway has seen it all, while Topuria is just settling into his first reign.

Will Ilia Topuria’s skills pay the bills or will Max Holloway’s chin and championship experience stand the test of time in the UFC’s biggest fight of the year?

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