This was the headline fight of UFC 298 on February 17th, 2024. Volkanovski, the longtime defending Featherweight (136-145 lb) champion, was coming off a bad head kick knockout loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 on October 21st, 2023. Volkanovski had gone up a weight class to take the Islam fight on short notice after original contender Charles Oliveira was injured during training camp, saving a card that was rapidly going to complete shambles with several other withdrawals. Islam Makhachev is the current Lightweight (146-155 lb) champ, so Volkanovski had the opportunity to be champion in two weight classes simultaneously - a feat accomplished by only a handful of the greatest fighters. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him, and there was worry that the bad nature of the knockout in addition to Volkanovski recently turning 35 - an age associated with an astonishingly steep decline in success rate for defending champions - put him in a weak position going into the fight.

I don’t have much to say about Topuria because I honestly had never heard of him before this fight lol.