A changing of the guard was in the air at UFC 298 on Saturday night in Anaheim, California, as the featherweight title shifted hands in violent fashion.
Ilia Topuria improved to 15-0 by brutally stopping long-time 145-pound king Alexander Volkanovski in the main event while former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker survived an entertaining scrap with Paulo Costa to keep pace among the 185-pound elites.
It’s time for a closer look at the biggest takeaways from a memorable pay-per-view card in Southern California.
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1. Ilia Topuria is the intersection of precision and power
The Georgian slugger, who fights out of the UFC’s next desired international takeover of Spain, is also the right breakout star at the right time as the promotion continues to experience such dramatic turnover of late at the championship level. At 27, Topuria has the look and swagger of an international star and is fluent in multiple languages. But so many title challengers before him have looked the part and still not fulfilled upon their once great promise. Topuria is clearly a different breed as he broke typical fighter protocol during fight week by posing for pictures with the championship belt before the bout and boldly predicted an early knockout. It was the fact that his precision and technique were just as dangerous as his fight-ending power that Topuria was able to command the center of the cage against a former pound-for-pound king and have him backpedaling throughout with such noticeable unease. And what did Topuria do on the microphone immediately following his breakthrough moment: he called out Conor McGregor. That’s how you do it.