February 17th is an interesting date for the UFC, because that is the date when one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of the past several years, Alexander Volkanovski, defends his featherweight crown. He will do so against one of the brightest-looking young talents in the organization, Ilia Topuria.
This duel is really compelling as Anaheim’s UFC 298 headliner because, in opposing corners, we’ve got two fighters who have vastly different amounts of experience fighting at the championship level. This will be Volk’s 9th title fight and his 6th title defense. Topuria, on the other hand, fights at this level for the first time in his career.