The fight with perhaps the most surprising outcome at UFC 300 was Max Holloway’s decisive knockout win over Justin Gaethje, a fight which many MMA fans and betting oddsmakers believed Gaethje would have a clear striking advantage in heading into the matchup.
After delivering a performance that had him up on the score cards in their five-round bout, Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC), in what is now an iconic UFC moment, pointed to the center of the ring, demanded a slugfest with Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) and delivered a knockout punch in the match’s final seconds that crowned him as the new BMF champion.
UFC Hall of Famer and current analyst Michael Bisping believes Justin Gaethje was a ‘victim of his own success’ against Max Holloway, attributing Gaethje’s knockout win over Poirier at UFC 291 and his reputation as one of the hardest strikers in the UFC to his downfall at UFC 300.
“I think he was a victim of his own success,” Bisping explained on the TNT Sports post-fight show. “Knocking out Dustin Poirier the way that he did and everybody riding the coattails and being a fan for obvious reasons, he’s a very exciting fighter and very accomplished. He thought he was going to go right through Max Holloway. He really did, and he was looking for the knockout constantly. You can’t do that. When you’re looking for the knockout, you telegraph the shot.
“He was swinging with everything he had. He wasn’t setting it up and other than throwing hooks, he was just throwing leg kicks. Step aside, left hook Larry, leg kick Larry, that’s what we’re going to call Justin Gaethje from now and listen, you know, he learned a very, very valuable lesson because he didn’t have to take this fight. He was the next contender for Islam Makhachev. He was the rightful contender for the lightweight title. That just went up in flames.”
Fellow fight analyst and commentator Joe Rogan believes that Holloway’s victory over Gaethje featured the greatest knockout in the sport’s history.
“That’s the greatest knockout of all time,” Rogan said on the UFC 300 broadcast. “With so many people counting him out, with so many people thinking he was outgunned, with so many people thinking he wouldn’t have a chance against the firepower of Justin Gaethje, the fact that he called for that with 10 seconds left in the fight and put the lights out on one of the most dangerous men to ever fight in the sport.”
Do you agree with Michael Bisping in that Justin Gaethje was a ‘victim of his own success’ or did Max Holloway simply approach Gaethje’s striking in a way that was different from fighters before him? Let us know in the comments.
