This outcome really isn't all that unusual in a large pay-per-view card. In any card we are going to get a few good fights on the undercard and then some real snoozers for a lot of the other ones. Maybe I am being fickle here but I like fights that end early with something glorious happening, not so much the game of chess that is winning on points.
UFC 308 delivered a lot of decision victories, most of which were quite obvious whose hand would be raised at the end of it, but right about the time that I figured the entire card would be rather ho-hum, both main events really delivered.
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Chimaev is one of those fighters that is still a bit difficult to read. Is his fight going to be a jockying for position 100% ground game or is it going to be one of those where he actually lands some strikes as well as good ground game? It is always a gamble with this guy but man oh man did he deliver yesterday against a former champion in Robert Whittaker. Whittaker is a beast and his number 3 ranking is beside (or was beside, I should say) his name for a reason. He is an all around good fighter and lays out some seriously damaging strikes if you give him some room. Well Chimaev didn't give him very much of that as this particular fight resulted in a very strange submission in the very first round.
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Once Chimaev took Robert's back in the middle of the first round, Whittaker tapped out remarkably fast. It was basically the fastest tapout that I have ever seen and there is some speculation that Whittaker's jaw had been dislocated at some point just before they went to the ground that time.
Unlike other mostly ground-game guys out there, Chimaev delivers some pretty shocking blows using his legs if you are in standing position attempting to prevent a takedown. When i see these I think to myself that 99% of the world's population including myself would be floored just from one of those. Therefore, it isn't much of a surprise the Whittaker couldn't remain standing for very long.
This submission was seriously impressive and when he called out for a chance at the belt after the fight, I think UFC kind of has to listen. He just dispatched the number 3 guy in the world despite not being in the top 10 himself. Chimaev claims that the upper ranked fighters are dodging a fight with him and while I don't know exactly how the bookings work with these things, it really wouldn't surprise me. Still though, since we do have a ranking system unless this boosts Chimaev to in or nearly in to the top 5, giving him a title shot would be unfair. We'll see. Everyone that matters in the MMA world had to have been seriously impressed with such a victory.
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As far as the title fight at the top of this card was concerned, the fight went to the person that most of the betting world just kind of assumed it would go to. Max Holloway is a crowd favorite, future hall-of-famer, and a household name as far as UFC is concerned. He was in a bit of a slump but the way that he has gone toe-to-toe with basically everyone of substance in the Featherweight division. He hasn't had a great deal of luck in winning in glorious fashion in the past couple of years outside of retiring the Korean Zombie in 2013, but he remains someone that pulls in the fans no matter where he fights. One of Max's primary assets is that he always chases his opponent down and he is basically impossible to KO. Well, that the case until yesterday.
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Max was a bit taller and looked more dominating just physically speaking but in the end it was Ilia Topuria who got the real power shots through that floored the UFC veteran and knocked him out cold. When Max fell, there was no doubt that the referee was going to jump in there and put a stop to it right away. Topuria made a promise to be the very first person to put Max away from KO or submission in Max's career and well, a lot of fighters make such claims. Not all of them are able to come through, in fact, most of them fail at such grandiose claims. Topuria not only accomplished this, but he made it look like it wasn't even that big of a deal for him to do so.
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Max got some good shots in as well with legs, hands and elbows, but it wasn't the volume that ended it, it was the sheer power that Topuria has behind his fists. That last strike that put the lights out on Holloway was absolutely brutal and that was all she wrong at about halfway through the 3rd round.
There were some other highlights throughout the night, in particular this very odd double-spinning-fist knockout that Magomedov pulled off and if you don't watch anything else from this night then just watch that, it is only about 8 seconds long in slo-mo.
Overall I would say the PPV was rather middle-of-the road, but two very important things happened towards the end. There is no denying Topuria's greatness - he might be one of the best PFP fighers in the world right now with atomic bombs for fists and also, UFC needs to streamline Chimaev towards a belt shot. There is no denying that he has what it takes to bring the heat to anyone in that division, even champion Dricus Du Plessis.
Did you watch the event? If so I would love to hear your thoughts as well