It finally happened 30 fights into Max Holloway’s UFC career.
The 32-year-old Waianae native suffered his first knockout loss when featherweight champion Ilia Topuria put him to bed with a left hook in the main event of UFC 308 on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Holloway, who surpassed eight hours of fight time inside a UFC octagon, stood toe-to-toe with Topuria and had landed more strikes in the fight when a right hook sent him backpedaling into the cage early in the third round.
Topuria closed the distance and seconds later landed a left hook that put Holloway down on the canvas. It only took a couple of blows after that for the referee to stop the fight at 1 minute, 34 seconds of the third round.
Topuria (16-0, 8-0 UFC) was pushed into the third round for only the third time in his UFC career.
His last two wins are TKO victories over the top two ranked fighters in the 145-pound division in Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski.
“I don’t know what to say. Beating a legend like Max Holloway, I don’t believe it,” Topuria said in his postfight interview inside the Octagon. “He inspired me so much my whole career. He’s been a great example for the generation. I hope I’m going to be a small portion of the example he’s been for the new generation.”
Two judges had Topuria ahead 20-18 entering the third round, while the third had it even at 19-19.
The Star-Advertiser had Holloway ahead 20-18 through two rounds.
“As you start to clip off legend after legend after legend, you eventually become a legend,” UFC President Dana White said after the fight. “Both guys looked great tonight. Max came in and looked right. He couldn’t have fought a better fight. Incredible performance by both guys.”
Holloway dropped to 26-8 overall and 22-8 in the UFC. He is 6-5 in his past 11 fights and has lost his past four 145-pound world title fights.
None of those losses were as stunning as watching him crumple to the canvas for the first time in a fight.
“I got ready for everything and he just landed a shot and I guess it hurt much more than I thought it did. I felt great until he did it,” Holloway said in his postfight interview. “That’s this sport. No excuses. I felt great, I had a great camp, no injuries. He was just the better man tonight.”
Topuria scored an early takedown in the first round, but Holloway was able to quickly get back to his feet and spent the last two minutes of the round landing a variety of shots on Topuria.
Holloway had his chin tested in the second round but continued to outwork Topuria and throw a bigger volume of shots.
According to UFC fighter stats, Holloway outlanded Topuria in significant strikes 65 to 54 entering the third round.
In the second fight of the main card, Kahuku alum Dan Ige lost a unanimous decision to Lerone Murphy in a featherweight bout.
Ige (18-9, 10-8) won the first round on all three judges’ scorecards after scoring a knockdown, but Murphy (15-0-1, 7-0-1) remained undefeated by coming back to win the last two.
Murphy entered the fight ranked No. 12 at 145 pounds, while Ige was 14th.
