‘Fight Island’ Returns! 22 Fun Tidbits, Facts & Storylines

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) travels to the Middle East this weekend (Sat., Oct. 26, 2024) for its super-stacked twelfth pay-per-view (PPV) event of the season, UFC 308, from inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

In UFC 308’s PPV main event, newly-minted Featherweight kingpin, Ilia Topuira, makes his highly-anticipated first title defense against Baddest Motherf—ker (BMF), Max Holloway. In the co-main event, Khamzat Chimaev FINALLY returns (fingers crossed) against former Middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker.

UFC 308 is perfectly crafted with fun fights from top to bottom, so before it all goes down from “Fight Island,” let’s checkout some random storylines, tidbits and statistics ahead of showtime …

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Best Fight For The Rest Of 2024

There have been some absolutely incredible fights in 2024, but the main event of 308 between Topuria vs. Holloway is by far the best fight for the rest of the year, and there is an argument for the best fight of 2024.

There is so much to this fight. The trash talk has been pretty heated, but it’s the technical aspect that is so intriguing—Topuria’s boxing vs. Holloway’s boxing, power vs. volume, the height difference, and the new guard vs. the old guard.

Fighter Of The Year?

It will be tough for anyone to topple Alex Pereira as 2024’s “Fighter of the Year,” but if Topuria goes out and finishes Holloway, he will have a claim. One, because Holloway has only been stopped once in his legendary career, and two, because Topuria has already knocked out former Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

The Big 30

UFC 308 will be Holloway’s 30th fight inside the octagon. The 32-year-old made his UFC debut way back at UFC 143 in 2012 against Dustin Poirier.

Main Eventers

UFC 308 will be Topuria’s third UFC main event—his third consecutive (UFC 298, UFC Jacksonville). It will be Holloway’s 11th time headlining a UFC card.

Title Fight Vet

Holloway has competed in 10 title fights.

Knock On Wood

After numerous sicknesses and setbacks, Chimaev returns to competition this weekend, but everyone reading this must stop and knock on wood because there is still time for “Borz” to pull out.
Chimaev has not fought since UFC 294, where he defeated Kamaru Usman. Prior to that, he fought Kevin Holland at UFC 279.

All signs point to Chimaev being healthy once again and ready to get back on track.

Rebooked!

Chimaev and Whittaker were supposed to clash at the main event of UFC’s first-ever show in Saudi Arabia earlier this summer; however, “Borz” pulled out a week before the fight. Whittaker went on to knock out Ikram Aliskerov.

Now, they finally throw down.

Five Round Co-Main

One last thing about Chimaev vs. Whittaker … they are fighting for five rounds. And it makes sense because there are a lot of stakes attached to it, like a possible Middleweight title shot.

Thanks, Now Fight This Killer

Earlier this year, Dan Ige received legendary status and stepped in on four hours’ notice to fight Diego Lopes. While he did not win the fight, he was ultra-competitive. UFC CEO Dana White said he would do anything for Ige because of his badassness.

Well, that lasted all of 2 weeks because after Ige did not get a spot at UFC 306, something he asked for, he got booked against undefeated killer Lerone Murphy.

Wahoo!!!

Pirate Returns

Top prospect Sharabutdin Magomedov, aka the Russian fighter with one eye, is kicking off the PPV main card. He is 3-0 thus far inside the promotion but is fighting his toughest test tomorrow: kickboxing champion Armen Petrosyan.

Welcome To UFC!

Two fighters make their UFC debut this weekend.

• Raffael Cerqueira (11-0) fights Ibo Aslan. Cerqueira was supposed to compete in season eight of Contender Series but was called to fight at UFC 308 instead. Cerqueira holds a 91% finish rate with eight knockouts.

Goodbye Lightweight

Former UFC legend and Lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos returns tomorrow, and he’s finally done cutting to 155 pounds. He will stay at Welterweight for the rest of his career, which he says is four more fights (the rest of his final contract).

RDA has had so-so results at Welterweight and will fight knockout artist Geoff Neal.

Oh, and he’s fighting on his birthday.

‘Huggy Bear’ Returns

After 25 months away from the cage because of injuries and other life problems, fan-favorite Heavyweight, Chris Barnett, returns to the cage. He was last in action at UFC 279 against Jake Collier.

Barnett welcomes former 205-pound standout, Kennedy Nzechukwu, to the Heavyweight division.

Weigh-In Fiasco

The third fight on the “Prelims” between Faird Basharat and Victor Hugo was supposed to be contested at Bantamweight. However, Hugo came in 10 lbs overweight, which would usually cancel a fight. Minutes before the early morning weigh-in, Hugo let Basharat’s team know he was heavy, and the fight was changed to a Featherweight bout.

Yikes.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

UFC 308 Fight Leader

The fighter with the most career fights competing at UFC 308 is dos Anjos (48).

UFC 308 Fight Rookie

The fighter with the least amount of career fights competing at UFC 308 is Cerqueira (11).

UFC 308 Knockout King

The fighter with the most amount of career knockouts competing at UFC 308 is Abus Magomedov (14).

UFC 308 Submission Savant

The fighter with the most amount of career submissions competing at UFC 308 is RDA (11).

Winners And Losers

Eighteen fighters are coming off wins, while seven are coming off losses.

Multi-Divisions

Here are the divisions that will be on display this Saturday:

• One Heavyweight fight
• Two Light Heavyweight fights
• Four Middleweight fights
• Two Welterweight fights
• One Lightweight
• Two Featherweight fights
• One Bantamweight fight

Beta Dog

According to Fan Duel, UFC 308’s “biggest” underdog is Barnett at +500.

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