Featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has vowed to be the first man to knock out Max Holloway.

He kept his promise at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Topuria (16-0), who unleashed a massive right hand to stun Holloway, dropped the 32-year-old with a powerful left hook moments later. Topuria immediately jumped Holloway to finish him ground-and-pound before referee Mark Goddard stopped the bout at 1:34 of the third round.

“I don’t know what to say to beat a legend like Max Holloway,” Topuria said. “He’s been a great example for the generation. … I hope I can be a small example to the next generation that he was to me.”

Topuria said he immediately knew victory was in his hands with his first powerful punch.

“I caught him with my right hand, I felt it,” Topuria said. “I saw it in his face. You don’t see that very often in Max Holloway.”

Topuria opened the match with Holloway’s traditional gesture of pointing to the middle of the ring, indicating that he wanted to throw him to the ground immediately. Holloway instead pointed to where he was standing.

The two mixed it up in the first round, with Topuria damaging Holloway’s lead leg early with leg kicks. Both fighters’ boxing skills were on display in the second round, with Holloway landing several big shots. But it seemed Topuria’s leg kicks were what continued to weaken Holloway.

Then came his two big punches in the third round.

“He just hit a shot and I think it hurt a lot more than I thought it would,” said Holloway, who fell to 26-8. “I was feeling great until he did this. No excuses. I felt great, had a great camp, no injuries. I went there, did my job. He was a better man tonight.”

This was Topuria’s first title defense since capturing the belt with a second-round technical knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 on February 17.

Topuria’s back-to-back victories over Holloway and Volkanovski are testament to his Fighter of the Year award.

Volkanovski attended the meeting on Saturday and Topuria said he would honor him with a rematch.

Topuria said to Volkanovski, who entered the octagon after the match, “You deserve it, man.”

In the co-main event, No. 13 Khamzat Chimaev (14-0) stopped No. 3 Robert Whitaker (27-8) by taking him down and landing a bad shot by submission in the first round just 3:34 into the fight. face crank.

“I’m going to get the belt!” Chimaev exclaimed after his dominant win.

“I love you brother, you’re a legend,” the Russian player told Whitaker in his post-fight interview.

Additionally from the main board:

Top-ranked light heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev defeated No. 5 Aleksandar Rakic ​​by unanimous decision after three rounds.

In an action-packed three-round featherweight bout, Lerone Murphy defeated Dan Ige via unanimous decision.

In the second round of the middleweight bout, Shara Magomedov (15-0-0) defeated Armen Petrosyan (9-4-0) by TKO at 4:52.