On a night that, as UFC President and CEO Dana White put it, “absolutely f*cking delivered,” Max Holloway delivered most of all at UFC 300.
He’s been rewarded for it handsomely.
Holloway and Justin Gaethje battled it out for the “BMF” title (you should know by now what that means), and things got off to a rough start, especially for Gaethje. He ate a spinning kick to the nose that may have broken it at the end of the first, and endured two eye pokes in the second round that had the ref warning Holloway.
Things picked up from there however. Holloway began to pull away, but in the later rounds, Gaethje became the first man to ever knock down the Hawaiian, a former featherweight champ who had moved to 155lbs for the BMF belt.
In the fifth, things went crazy. A hotly contested round, Holloway appeared to be a lock to win the bout regardless. But in the final 20 seconds or so, he pointed at the floor, the age old Holloway signal for “stand and swing to the bell.” Justin obliged, no doubt the one man as game as Max Holloway. It was “Blessed” connecting however, putting “The Highlight” out with one second left in the fight.
White was thrilled while announcing the bonuses, with Fight of the Night going to the BMF bout, and Holloway earning a Performance bonus on top.
“Tonight totally embodied what that belt was build for. And there should be a picture of that fight in the f*cking dictionary when you look up BMF.”
Jiri Prochazka picked up the other Performance of the Night bonus for his war with Aleksandar Rakic, having put away Rakic via TKO in the second. And with UFC 300 being a milestone event, each bonus winner is set for an extra $300,000 USD.
Attendance at the T-Mobile Arena was 20,067 for a $16.5 million U.S. gate.
