Max Holloway won the “BMF” championship at UFC 300 with a knockout punch to Justin Gaethje in the final second of the fight, a performance that UFC CEO Dana White described as a “career-defining moment” and potentially the “Fight of the Year.”
Max Holloway’s career is a montage of spectacular victories. But his UFC 300 performance? That’s a whole new level of epic.
As the clock was ticking towards a sure-fire unanimous decision win, Holloway did something unexpected. He threw caution to the wind, pointed to the octagon’s center, and invited Justin Gaethje for a fist exchange.
The fighters started throwing punches like there was no tomorrow. But it was Holloway who landed the knockout punch. With just a second left, Gaethje hit the canvas, face-first.
This fight didn’t just crown Holloway as the new “BMF” champ. It may have catapulted his career onto an entirely new path.
UFC CEO Dana White had nothing but praise for Holloway’s performance. “When we created the ‘BMF’, tonight embodied what that belt was built for,” he said. He even suggested that a picture of the fight should be in the dictionary under ‘BMF’.
White is in the business of selling “holy s***” moments. And Holloway’s performance? That was the ultimate one. “If you were at home, at a bar or here live tonight, there’s no bigger holy s*** than that,” he said.
Holloway’s reputation played a part in his selection as Gaethje’s opponent for this historic UFC card. White was particularly impressed by Holloway’s decision to trade shots with Gaethje in the final round, despite having the fight won.
“That’s why Max Holloway is beloved,” White said. He compared Holloway’s actions to a fighter who, knowing he’s winning, raises his hands and starts moving around. But Holloway? He chose to face one of the most dangerous fighters in the business head-on.
Holloway and Gaethje’s performance earned them Fight of the Night and a $300,000 bonus each. Holloway even bagged an extra bonus for Performance of the Night. White thinks it’ll be tough to top that in 2024.
“It’s the Fight of the Year,” White declared. “If something beats that for Fight of the Year, I don’t want to see the two guys involved in that fight at the end of the fight.”
White believes that specific moments help some fighters transcend into the combat sports zeitgeist. Holloway, already a bankable star, may have entered a new category shared by only a select few in the sport’s history with his UFC 300 performance.
“He was a star coming in here. He took himself to an entirely different level after tonight,” White said. “Tonight was a career-defining moment for a guy that has already accomplished so many great things.”
Holloway, one of the greatest featherweights of all time, always claimed he had the best hands in the UFC. And his performance that night? It was a testament to that. “F****** awesome. I can’t say enough good things about both of those guys and that fight,” White concluded.