UFC 300 will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest cards in the sports history. The expectations were high leading into the card on April 13 but all expectations were surpassed with an unbelievable night of action.
Found right in the middle of the 5 fight main card was a Lightweight clash that had largely been coined as the people’s main event, with Justin Gaethje looking to defend his BMF belt against Max Holloway.
Fight fans were expecting a war, and that is certainly what they got. Holloway was crowned the new BMF champion with an incredible performance and a finish, one second before the final bell, that will stay in the mind of fans for years to come.
With just a second left on the clock in the opening round, Holloway landed a spinning kick which immediately broke the nose of Gaethje. The spinning attack became a pivotal part of strikes Holloway through the contest and he revealed post-fight that it was something himself an the team had picked up on as a striking option which could cause ‘The Highlight’ some problems. He said:
“For sure, he likes to plant his feet throwing and he likes to duck, you know and I was blessed enough to land that first one right at the last seconds of the first round helped a lot. Like I said, he got a broken nose from it. So that was good. That was that was definitely about the plan. We saw a lot of things. Justin was a little quicker than I thought he would be. But like everybody said, the guy hits hard
“I'm glad I got to come out of this kind of unscathed. The leg is going to kind of stiff, but it is what it is.”
With just 10 seconds left of the bout, and Holloway clearly up on the cards, the Hawaiian summoned Gaethje to the centre of the octagon and the two stood and swung on each other for the remainder of the bout. A huge hook rendered Gaethje unconscious in the very last second to cap off a phenomenal performance from Holloway, and secure a moment of UFC history that will live on for years.
When asked about his decision to take such a risk with such few seconds left in the contest, Holloway explained his reasoning behind the decision. He said:
“This is the moment. This is what BMF is known for, you know, the baddest mother effer. First of all, I want to change. I want to change the name to blessed man forever. That's what the belt means when I hold a blessed man forever. But if that's not a BMF moment, I don't know what is.
“If the cards were flipped and Justin was up, if he felt like he was up and I knew he would give me that 10 second shot. So he's a bad man and I don't know if I’m ever going to share the Octagon with him again. He's a legend, brother. This is the type of stuff you do to etch your name in the history books.
“And I'm just happy that I was the one landing. You know, he missed some shots. I was getting hurt by the wind of these shots, but that's how hard he hit. This guy, he's next level.”
Speaking to Joe Rogan immediately after the fight, Holloway had a very clear ‘I am him.’ message for those who doubted him on the lead up to the fight. Clarifying exactly who his post fight speech was aimed at.
I was calling out, people telling me, whatever I was doing, Justin's going to be too big, too strong. Just a lot of stuff. You know, people need to get reminded. And I'd let them know. I let them know. I was telling people all week, but we're here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. And you guys need a reminder. Everybody was talking about the haircut is back. I guess that his haircut is like going super Saiyan or something if you guys are anime fans. So at the end of the day, it was just it was just a huge moment for me, you know, being being blessed enough to be in there, being UFC 300, having this event, brother, this event is going to be talked about for for ages.
“You know, I don't know what card is ever going to have 12 or more champions on top of it. You know. So we may have to wait until 400 for that one.”
You can watch the dramatic ending of the UFC 300 BMF title fight, below:
