Max Holloway and the Real Winners and Losers from UFC 300
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Finally…it was Christmas Day for mixed martial arts fans.
UFC 300, a card billed as the greatest in the promotion’s 30-year history, was topped by a five-bout main show that included a pair of title fights, one that matched light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira in his initial defense against ex-champ Jamahal Hill; and another that pitted two-time strawweight ruler Zhang Weili against Yan Xiaonan.
But it’s the depth and breadth of the show that made it memorable, given the presence of eight other former champs across the remaining 11 bouts and the milestone accomplishment of veteran Jim Miller, who faced Bobby Green in an early prelim scrap that made him the only fighter to appear at UFC 100, 200 and 300.
The B/R combat team was in place to take it all in and compile a definitive real-time list of the super show’s real winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Winner: Stealing the Show
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OK, this BMF thing might be legit after all.
Some loved it, while others rolled their eyes before Saturday’s showdown between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway. Even though the majority of five rounds, it seemed more of a clinical masterpiece than a down-and-dirty slugfest befitting a volatile name.
Until Holloway, long labeled one of the featherweight division’s all-time greats, called his shot.
He was certainly cruising to a wide decision over a bloodied and battered Gaethje when he pointed to the center of the octagon with 10 seconds remaining and challenged his high-powered foe to an all-out rumble down the stretch, befitting the BMF moniker and sending the crowd into a frenzy.
And then it happened.
An overhand right thrown amid the heated exchange landed square on Gaethje’s face, instantly separating him from consciousness and sending him face-first to the canvas with one second left.
An ebullient Joe Rogan immediately deemed it the greatest KO in UFC history.
“With so many people counting him out, with some many people thinking he was outgunned,” Rogan said, “the fact that he called for that with 10 seconds left and put the lights out of one of the toughest men in the sport. Unbelievable.”
Gaethje, who’d already had his nose broken by a spinning kick in the first round and was subsequently battered to the head and the body for the balance of the bout, lay motionless for several seconds before being spun to his back and eventually helped to his feet.
He was able to join Holloway at the center of the mat for the official announcement, a KO at 4:59 of the fifth round that opened multiple doors for Holloway, considering he was already the No. 2 contender at featherweight and finished the incumbent No. 2 at lightweight.
“I’m him,” Holloway said. “I’m a gladiator. I don’t care what’s next.
“I want 600K. That was the fight of the night plus a bonus.”
Winner: Fighting Through It
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Jamahal Hill landed a kick that was audible as it struck Alex Pereira’s cup and instantly drew the attention of referee Herb Dean, who approached to offer a moment of recovery time.
But the champion didn’t want it.
Instead, he immediately waved Dean off with his right hand and stepped forward to continue his aggression, landing a left hand that sent Hill’s eyes rolling backward in his head as he tumbled backward to the canvas and left him defenseless to a follow-up flurry that ended it at 3:14 of the first.
It was Pereira’s first defense of the 205-pound belt he won against Jiří Procházka last November at Madison Square Garden, a win that made him just the 10th fighter in UFC history to hold titles in multiple weight classes. He’d had a brief reign at middleweight after KO’ing Israel Adesanya to win the belt in November 2022 before losing it in a rematch five months later.
And he followed it up by instantly suggesting a climb to heavyweight to perhaps challenge interim champion Tom Aspinall, who was seated at cage-side.
“You guys can see what I was doing in there,” Pereira said. “I was gauging the distance and the timing and everything went perfect. I don’t let this belt go to my head. I feel like I have to win this belt every time I come in here. I want to continue defending this belt. I want to have a fight at heavyweight.”
Winner: Premium Mettle
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She arrived as one of the biggest betting favorites on the 13-bout show, but there’s no doubt that Zhang Weili’s grip on the strawweight title was starting to slip just a bit.
She expended a great deal of energy while chasing submissions against top contender Yan Xiaonan in the first two rounds and found herself on the receiving end of 26 significant strikes and pair of takedowns from the challenger—ultimately heading back to her corner in some competitive distress.
But then the championship mettle, forged across six previous title fights in two reigns, kicked in.
The promotion’s first Chinese-born champion quickly got the fight back to the mat to begin the fourth round and spent the majority of the final 10 minutes there, shaking off the damage she’d suffered and cruising safely to a unanimous decision in which all three judges scored it 49-45.
The B/R card made it a clean sweep, giving Weili the first round by two points and every remaining round outside of the third.
“She is an amazing fighter,” Weili said of her fellow China-based opponent. “She’s so tough.”
The toughness showed at the end of the first round when Weili had locked in a rear-naked choke and had Xiaonan unconscious as the horn sounded to end the round. But Weili pushed her off as the fighters separated and Xiaonan managed to climb awkwardly to her feet, ensuring that she’d be helped to her corner to continue the fight.
Xiaonan managed to escape another perilous arm triangle situation in the second before having her moment in the third, before Weili’s rebound to regain control.
“I really believed that she was out,” Weili said, “but she bounced back quickly.”
Winner: Young vs. Old
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It’s not been a good run lately for younger fighters trying to unseat the old guard.
Most recently, Benoit Saint-Denis was a big favorite to handle lightweight OG Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 but fell short and got finished in two rounds.
Fourth-ranked lightweight Arman Tsarukyan was aware of that recent history as he got ready to step in to meet No. 1 Charles Oliveira, and it turns out he was more prepared to do the job.
The Armenian survived scary submission moments against the Brazilian choke matrix early in the first round and late in the third, but he managed to rough Oliveira up and get him to the ground several times in between on the way to winning a narrow but fair split decision.
Two judges gave Tsarukyan two of three rounds while the dissenting judge and the B/R card had it 2-1 in Oliveira’s direction.
But the non-unanimous nature of the win didn’t seem to matter to the Armenian,
“I didn’t understand how the one judge gave it to him. I thought all judges would give it to me,” Tsarukyan said. “But it doesn’t matter. I won, and I want to fight for the title.
“I’m going to be the youngest UFC champ in the lightweight division.”
Winner: Self Awareness
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Given the hype behind Bo Nickal, it wasn’t a vintage performance on Saturday night.
But when you consider he was kicking off a pay-per-view show while making just his third appearance inside a UFC cage and sixth fight overall, it was significantly more impressive.
So, it was no surprise that Nickal veered between disappointed and content in the moments following his second-round submission of 15-fight veteran Cody Brundage.
“I feel like I’m a little bit embarrassed with that performance,” Nickal said.
“I gave him a few too many opportunities and he forced me to be a little more tactical and not get into positions where I’m vulnerable.”
Indeed, the eight-plus minutes Nickal had to go before securing the rear-naked choke that prompted a tap from Brundage at 3:38 in the second round was easily his longest fight. He’d never gone into a second round before, and, had never gone as far as three minutes.
He wound up with 45 strikes, three takedowns and more than seven minutes of control time before locking up his sixth straight finish and fourth win by submission.
And unlike a lot of fighters, he didn’t immediately campaign for a title shot. Instead, he conceded he’d need to climb the ladder and promised to convert the non-believers along the way.
“For all the people that want to see me lose, I’m gonna turn you guys around,” he said. “You’re all gonna love me. I guarantee it.”
Winner: Samurai Superiority
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Jiří Procházka considers himself a throwback.
He proudly wears the label of “The Last Samurai.”
When it came to Saturday’s prelim card finale, he was absolutely on brand.
The former light heavyweight king walked through the competitive fire that was opponent Aleksandar Rakic’s pre-fight trash talk and in-fight leg kicks, ultimately drawing his foe into a slugfest that quickly went in his direction and ended in a TKO victory at 3:17 of Round 2.
“He talked about me like I’m not a samurai,” Procházka said. “We all need to love and be inspired by something, and the samurai idea is something that is inside me. It pushed me more to prove that I’m living with these rules, and I believe in myself and my dreams in my head.”
Belief was a necessity for the ex-champ in the first five minutes as both his left and right legs were marked up by the 17 low kicks Rakic landed in the opening round.
But Procházka landed a flurry of punches late in the round that helped him get closer to the target and his consistent aggression led to a hard right hand that sent Rakic reeling across the cage in the second.
Procházka pursued, got Rakic to the floor and bombarded him with punches and elbows until referee Herb Dean had no choice but to wave it off.
“No matter who wins in the main event,” the No. 2 contender said, “I want to fight the champion.”
Winner: Doubling Up
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On a night filled with actual or wannabe champ-champs, Aljamain Sterling stood out.
The former bantamweight king climbed 10 pounds up the ladder to featherweight and immediately jumped on the division’s eighth-ranked contender, grinding Calvin Kattar to the ground repeatedly on the way to a clear if not titillating unanimous decision in the penultimate prelim bout.
All three judges and the B/R card had it 30-27 in his favor.
Earlier on the card, former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo continued a new pursuit of gold at featherweight, and, in the main event, former middleweight king Alex Pereira was defending a title at light heavyweight, his second championship division.
Sterling hadn’t fought since dropping his 135-pound belt to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 last August and hadn’t won since beating a former champ-champ, Henry Cejudo, in the main event at UFC 288 in May.
He began the lather, rinse, repeat sequence within the first two minutes against Kattar, ultimately scoring the same number of takedowns (8) as Kattar scored significant strikes (8). He added an 89-19 edge in overall strikes and wound up with better than 10 minutes of control time, too.
It was Kattar’s third consecutive UFC loss though he’d not fought since October 2022 and still hasn’t won since beating Giga Chikadze nine months earlier.
Loser: Combat Nostalgia
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Holly Holm pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history against a decorated judo ace.
So, when she was matched with two-time Olympic judo champion and promotional newcomer Kayla Harrison, there was hope among her fans she could follow a script matching the one that yielded a defeat of the supposedly unbeatable Ronda Rousey.
But that win was more than eight years and 107 pay-per-views ago at UFC 193. And Holm, these days, is a 42-year-old woman.
Though she showed early mettle in attempting to grapple with her younger and more powerful opponent, it proved to be a faulty approach as Harrison got her to the ground and dished out significant punishment in the first round, then followed it up in the second on the way to the rear-naked choke that drew a surrender from the ex-champ at 1:47.
With it, a new era began for the ambitious Harrison, who debuted in the octagon after a long and successful run with the rival PFL organization.
“I want my title next,” she said. “That’s what I came over here for. One thing and one thing only. By the end of the year, I will be UFC champion.”
Winner: Building a Brand
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It’s the biggest stage in MMA.
So, it provides an excellent opportunity for a fighter to climb a level.
Featherweight Diego Lopes did just that in the middle prelim opener against 13th-ranked Sodiq Yusuff, dropping him with a pair of powerful uppercuts and following the second one up with a flurry that prompted a rescue from referee Mark Smith after just 89 seconds.
The giddy winner climbed over the fence to chat up Dana White and Mark Zuckerberg at cage-side before returning to celebrate his third win since a decision loss to Movsar Evloev that he took on short notice while making his debut with the promotion last May.
He called out Evloev, now ranked fifth at featherweight, in the aftermath of the win against Yusuff and mentioned the name of newly minted champion Ilia Topuria, suggesting he’d go to fight him on a card planned for Spain.
A fitting agenda for a guy with the words “dream, believe and make it happen” tattooed on his chest.
“It was a very important fight for me,” he said. “I knew the result could not be any different. I’m gonna be champ of this division. I know my next step and I’m gonna be champion.”
Winner: Stealing a Highlight
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Jalin Turner was going for a memorable UFC 300 highlight.
He landed a hard right hand at the end of the first round that sent Renato Moicano tumbling to the mat, then turned and started to walk away, expecting referee Herb Dean to wave things off.
But when Dean didn’t react, Moicano did.
The chatty Brazilian got up, took advantage of the intermission between rounds, and returned to his voracious grappling self in the second round, ultimately getting his man to the floor, mounting him and bringing an actual intervention from Dean in his favor at 4:11.
Analyst Daniel Cormier chastised Turner for his wannabe walk-off.
“You try to create moments,” he said, “when you should have gone in and tried to finish him.”
It was a third straight win in a career resurgence that’s gotten Moicano to 11-5 in the UFC and made him a can’t-miss proposition on the post-fight mic, where he celebrated his love for the U.S. and its Constitution, invited Joe Rogan to appear on his podcast, and proclaimed himself the top of the heap at 155 pounds.
“My name is Money F–king Moicano and I’m the best lightweight in the world,” he said. “I’m not gonna stop until I have the belt. I have a family to feed. Jalin Turner is a tough guy, a huge guy, but I cannot afford to lose.”
Loser: Celebrating A-10
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Everyone was rooting for Jim Miller.
The crowd was chanting his name. The announce team was heralding his competitive story. And the blockbuster event, to at least some extent, was built around the fact that he’d been successful and relevant long enough to compete at each of the promotion’s milestone events.
But once referee Marc Goddard completed his instructions and waved Miller to the center to start his three-rounder with fellow octagonal veteran Bobby Green, the celebration was over.
The popular New Jersey fighter was as determined and tough as ever but was vastly overmatched in terms of speed, precision and damage on the way to losing a unanimous three-round decision that was as wide as it was brutal.
One judge saw it a garden variety 30-27 in Green’s favor while another had it 30-25, giving the winner two two-point rounds, and the third gave him one before turning in a 29-26 scorecard.
Miller’s grizzled face was a mask of blood at the final horn as he oozed from cuts above and below his right eye and leaked from his nose. Green, meanwhile, won for the third time in his last four fights and parlayed the added momentum into a high-profile callout of English loudmouth Paddy Pimblett.
“How dare you?” he said, referencing Pimblett. “You slimy, sugary little snake. How dare you say my name? I’m coming to your backyard, to your people, and kick your ass.”
Winner: Delayed Gratification
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Cody Garbrandt and Deiveson Figueiredo have been rivals for years.
They nearly met when the Brazilian was reigning at 125 pounds, but the would-be title bout was scuttled when Garbrandt was diagnosed with COVID.
They finally got together in Saturday’s opening match, and Figueiredo, in his second encounter in a run at 135, looks every bit like a guy who could at some point reign in a second class.
The 36-year-old defeated Rob Font in his bantamweight debut on a Fight Night four months ago and kept the mojo going against Garbrandt, becoming the aggressor after a pedestrian first round, getting his foe to the mat in the first minute and getting him into a series of compromising positions before securing a finish by rear-naked choke at 4:02 of the second.
He’s 12-3-1 in the UFC, 2-0 in the weight class and already suggesting to the promotional hierarchy that a date with Sean O’Malley should be on the imminent agenda.
“I want my belt,” he said. “I feel so good in this this division. Dana, please. One shot.”
Winner: Everyone Participates
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After two one-sided fights, it was time to get the judges involved.
Ranked strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Marina Rodriguez provided a significant contrast in styles in their three-rounder on the early prelim card, which all but guaranteed the scorecards would play a role after their 15 minutes of combat were complete.
A shorter, more aggressive Andrade continually plowed forward, swung for the fences and intermittently tried to get the fight to the ground, while the taller, longer Rodriguez fought from a distance, leaned on technique and scored with precision.
Each woman had moments but the folks with the cage-side pencils determined Andrade had more of them, giving her a split decision with two 29-28 cards in her favor compared to one against.
The B/R card matched the majority and had it 29-28 for Andrade, giving her the first round for her dominance on the ground and the second for a one-minute stretch at the end in which she appeared to have her foe on the verge of a KO loss had the round been 30 seconds longer.
Rodriguez recovered and had it her way in the third, tagging Andrade from the outside as her gas tank emptied, and her frenetic attacks slowed.
Andrade ended with advantages in significant (89-82) and overall (124-94) strikes, as well as takedowns (1-0) and control time (3:53 to 0).
It was her 17th win in 27 UFC fights and second in a row after a three-fight skid from February to August of last year.
Full Card Results
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Main Card
Alex Pereira def. Jamahal Hill by KO (punch), 3:14, Round 1
Zhang Weili def. Yan Xiaonan by unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-45)
Max Holloway def. Justin Gaethje by KO (punch), 4:59, Round 5
Arman Tsarukyan def. Charles Oliveira by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Bo Nickal def. Cody Brundage by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:38, Round 2
Preliminary Card
Jiří Procházka def. Aleksandar Rakic by TKO (strikes), 3:17, Round 2
Aljamain Sterling def. Calvin Kattar by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Kayla Harrison def. Holly Holm by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:47, Round 2
Diego Lopes def. Sodig Yusuff by TKO (strikes), 1:29, Round 1
Early Preliminary Card
Renato Moicano def. Jalin Turner by TKO (strikes), 4:11, Round 2
Jessica Andrade def. Marina Rodriguez by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Bobby Green def. Jim Miller by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 29-26)
Deiveson Figueiredo def. Cody Garbrandt by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:02, Round 2
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