Can Ilia Topuria add another legend to his resume against Max Holloway | UFC 308 Early Storylines - video Dailymotion

Peter Klein

Ilia Topuria has a chance to add another Hall of Fame name to his resume when he faces Max Holloway at UFC 308. Peter Klein looks at what the main stories are for that fight as well as Khamzat Chimaev's fight against Robert Whitaker.  Apple Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM Twitter: twitter.com/primetimeklein IG: instagram.com/primetimeklein Facebook: www.facebook.com/Couchpotatodiary Twitch: twitch.tv/primetimepk Email: couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com We Had No Idea: every Wednesday morning,  instagram.com/wehadnoideapodcast

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00:00UFC 308 going down this weekend after a brief pause there for live viewers we get back up

00:14and running here.

00:16Very interesting main event and honestly very interesting main and co-main.

00:19We do these on Mondays of every UFC pay-per-view where we look at the big fights coming up

00:25on it and the main and co-main and this is one of the better combinations you will have

00:29it is Ilya Teporia defending the featherweight championship as he goes up against Max Holloway

00:35and in the co-main event you have Robert Whitaker and Honza Chemaev looking to settle who will

00:40be the next probable challenger at 185 pounds.

00:44Let's start with the 145 pounders Teporia has a chance to go back to back against legends

00:49first he has a win over Alex Volkanovsky and now he is facing Max Holloway this kid feels

00:54like one of the next big things and it has felt like that for a little bit 27 years old

00:59he feels like a superstar everyone clamors for the UFC to do stadium shows they could

01:04do a soccer stadium with him in Spain tomorrow and it would be perfect I think this guy has

01:10the feel the style and all of it of one of the biggest stars in the Ultimate Fighting

01:17Championship we have him pretty high up in the pound-for-pound rankings right now and

01:21honestly if he beats Holloway he has a very good case to move into that top three it's

01:27going to be tough to get past Pereira and to get past Makisev up at number one but wins

01:36over Volk and Holloway get you into the top three at least and get you onto the podium

01:40so he has an opportunity here this weekend to at 27 work his way into pound-for-pound

01:45number one at least consideration with a victory for Max Holloway it's looking to find that

01:49magic again he has the epic knockout over Justin Gaethje but I still think people view

01:56him a little bit differently than he deserves he is only 32 years old and I think having

02:01the losses against Volkanovski and having while Volk was the champ no clear path to

02:06a championship opportunity you then fall into oh it's the Rich Franklin it's the Kenny

02:11Florian it's all these guys where yeah you know what very good fight very good fighter

02:16no one questioning how good Max Holloway was but at this point it's just not there for

02:19you can't be the champion so you're just going to kind of take some money weight fights and

02:24that's going to be that and that's going to be the end of it um not so much this guy's

02:2932 years old his last four losses three of them have come to Alex Volkanovski who at

02:33the time was the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world and the other one comes

02:36to Dustin Poirier who kind of does that to everyone when Holloway was moving up to 155

02:41for one of the first times in his career and so I I just think that people really underestimate

02:47Max Holloway going into this like I said coming off of a legendary knockout over Gaethje but

02:52let's not just let that fight be brought down to one epic moment epic moment all-time

02:57great moment for sure but it was a dominant performance the whole night vintage Max Holloway

03:07that Max Holloway against almost anybody doesn't lose I just don't know if to Poirier is in

03:13that category I just feel like he might be a level above this fight is gonna be so interesting

03:17to go through and break down as the week goes on um in the co-main event it is a middleweight

03:22bout between Robert Whitaker and Hamzat Chemaev for Chemaev it is time to get going he for

03:28a long time has been the best fighter to not have a championship in the UFC and it just

03:35it doesn't quite frankly feel like he is taking it seriously and I think the momentum completely

03:41stalled at UFC 279 when he misses weight for that goes out and just ragdolls Kevin

03:48Holland but since then he's only fought once it was basically a year ago against Kamaru

03:53Usman and that one it's at 185 and you beat a 170 pounder so it feels like that momentum

03:58is cooled and so I think the big thing to watch this weekend is can Hamzat get that

04:04buzz back can he get that can you remind everyone that he is one of the best fighters in the

04:10world because I don't think there is a question when you just look at talent that he might

04:15be the most talented fighter in the ultimate fighting championship today he does not have

04:20the championship resume to prove it yet but he does have an opportunity to really establish

04:25that here this weekend when he goes up against Robert Whitaker and try to get that buzz back

04:30and get back on top for Whitaker it is a chance to remind everyone how good he is again I

04:35feel like a lot of people almost underrate him because he hasn't been in the title picture

04:40for a long time the loss against DDP was a real difficult one and it just it has kind

04:47of now set him back but we do forget before Izzy came in and kind of dominated Robert

04:52Whitaker was the guy at 185 pounds a win here as improbable as it may seem but a win here

05:00gets him back into that conversation again gets him into a title shot opportunity against

05:06Drikus Duplassie and creates a real buzz around him again so it's just it is kind of like

05:12Max Holloway where you have a chance against someone who most of the MMA community feels

05:18has passed you by this is a chance to go out and grab that reputation back and be like

05:22no you know what I'm still that guy I'm still going to be the one who can go out and get

05:27that job done so it's going to be really interesting to see what Robert Whitaker can do this weekend.

Can Ilia Topuria add another legend to his resume against Max Holloway | UFC 308 Early Storylines

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