The pride of Hawaii is now the UFC's BMF Champion. On Saturday night at UFC 300, Max Holloway defeated Justin Gaethje to win the BMF title with a thrilling knockout late in the fifth round.
The iconic title match was action-packed from the opening round to the literal last second. After 24 minutes and 50 seconds of thrilling exchanges, Holloway pointed to the center of the mat and told Gaethje to bring it to him.
A few seconds later, Holloway slammed him with an overhand right, sending Gaethje face-planting into the mat.
“I'm him,” Holloway exclaimed afterward.
Joe Rogan called it the greatest knockout of all time.
— UFC (@ufc) April 14, 2024
And all that momentum started 20 minutes earlier with a spinning heel kick near the end of the first round that seriously injured Gaethje's nose.
Gaethje suffered from a nasal leak for the rest of the game, but Hawaiian Holloway never slowed down. Holloway was especially sharp in the third round, attacking Gaethje with combos and spinning kicks.
Holloway displayed elite defense throughout the match, overcoming Gaethje's repeated brutal calf kicks. He deftly dodged Gaethje's power shots and countered the pressure with fastballs, but Gaethje stumbled back and touched his injured nose.
However, despite the first 15 minutes being one-sided, Gaethje fought back in the fourth round, knocking Holloway down and hitting the canvas for the first time. Holloway survived the onslaught of power and bounced back with another storm in the fifth round.
Holloway moved up from featherweight to lightweight and faced Gaethje in a landmark UFC event, the second weight class of Holloway's career.
Despite his success against top contenders in the lightweight division, Holloway said: The Athletic He has unfinished business at featherweight, where he once held the title for 925 days. However, Holloway's career was at a crossroads after dropping the title to Alexander Volkanovski to regain the belt, and losing to Volkanovski twice more.
However, after Ilya Topria took the featherweight belt from Volkanovski at UFC 298, the division was restarted and Holloway's title hopes were reignited. Holloway said. The Athletic After the rematch between Topuria and Volkanovski, he plans to have a shot at the featherweight title.
Kayla Harrison delivers a head kick to Holly Holm at UFC 300 (Photo: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Kayla Harrison has been touted for years as perhaps the greatest female fighter outside of the UFC, but at UFC 300 on Saturday night, she is now the most feared female fighter inside the UFC. proved that it is possible.
Harrison defeated former women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm in her UFC debut, submitting Holm with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
The choke was Harrison's seventh submission victory of his career. Prior to the UFC, Harrison had a 16-1 record in the Professional Fighters League and won the PFL Women's Lightweight Tournament in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
In the PFL, Harrison fought exclusively at lightweight (155 pounds), but the heaviest women's division in the UFC is bantamweight (135 pounds). The question of how her 5-foot-8-inch Harrison would cope with her weight loss was answered Saturday as she looked dominant in her bantamweight debut.
She had a fierce stand-up fight with former world champion boxer Holm, executing multiple trip throws to knock Holm to the ground. The first round involved several minutes of intense ground-and-pound exchange, with Holm being pinned against the fence and peppered with heavy punches and elbows.
One minute into the second round, Harrison landed a head kick on Holm, followed by a double leg takedown, and after nearly sinking in submission, he tripped Holm and got another takedown. Less than a minute later, Harrison backed up Holm and sank in a rear-naked choke for the win.
Before his first MMA fight in 2018, Harrison had established a career as one of the most dominant judokas of all time. She won Olympic gold medals in judo in 2012 and 2016, won three IJF Grand Slam tournaments, and was inducted into the United States Judo Federation Hall of Fame.
After his 2016 Olympic gold medal, Harrison was promoted to Rokudan (6th degree black belt), making him the youngest American athlete to be awarded this degree.
Harrison found her way into MMA by becoming a training partner of fellow judo champion Ronda Rousey. Rousey's legendary title reign in the UFC was famously swept into oblivion by Holm in 2015 with a head kick.
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(Top photo: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
