UFC 300 Takeaways: BMF theme of entire card helped make special night

For weeks leading up to UFC 300 there was fear it would not or could not live up to the hype. Marketed as the greatest night of fights ever assembled, Saturday's blockbuster event somehow managed to meet, if not exceed entirely, the loftiest of expectations.

The most appealing aspect of UFC 300 was the undeniable quality of depth the fight card boasted, but the presence of a five-round BMF Title fight between fan favourites Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway had fans buzzing and had an undercurrent of a certain je ne sais quoi. 

The dramatic, Hollywood-esque manner in which that fight concluded felt almost too incredible to be real in the moment.

“Tonight totally embodied what that belt was built for,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “There should be a picture in the (expletive) dictionary when you look up BMF. It was incredible. I don’t know if you guys noticed this, but that fight sucked the life out of everybody tonight. The next two fights, everybody was sitting there, like there was this adrenaline dump.  People always ask me what I do, I sell holy (bleep) moments for a living. That was the ultimate holy (bleep) moment of all time.”

In addition to the buzz around the fight card itself, fight fans and pundits wondered how UFC 300 would end up comparing to both UFC 100 and UFC 200.

White reflected and said he couldn’t think of an event that tops how UFC 300 unfolded.

UFC 100 was headlined by Brock Lesnar knocking out Frank Mir. Lesnar was still a relatively new-to-the-UFC superstar who won a title fight by big brothering his opponent, similar to what Alex Pereira did to Jamahal Hill.

That card featured Dan Henderson’s all-time vicious knockout of Michael Bisping; Holloway folding Gaethje in the manner he did was Saturday's most violent moment and one that will also live in infamy.

The UFC 100 preliminary card featured future champion Jon Jones picking up a second-round submission win over a fellow collegiate wrestler. Will people look back at UFC 300 in a few years and note Bo Nickal’s second-round sub of Cody Brundage as a positive turning point in his pro career?

Those UFC 100 prelims happened to be topped by the legend Mark Coleman who beat the late Stephan Bonnar that night. Coleman was a special guest at UFC 300 and the inaugural heavyweight champion was asked to wrap the BMT belt around the winner's waist only several weeks removed from saving his parents from a house fire.

UFC 200 is remembered for what could’ve been. 

Initially rumoured to feature the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, the UFC eventually announced an anticipated grudge match between Jon and Daniel Cormier for the 205-pound title as the headliner only to have it fall apart three days prior to the event when Jones failed a drug test.

Anderson Silva stepped in to fight Cormier on short notice and the UFC had a couple weeks prior added Brock Lesnar to the card so there was plenty of star power yet many of the fights themselves were forgettable.

The UFC 200 prelims had a pair of future champions in T.J. Dillashaw and Julianna Pena and the event ended up being headlined by Amanda Nunes vs. Miesha Tate with Nunes winning and beginning her reign as champion. UFC 300 featured three women’s bouts and one of which has a direct connection to the former two-weight champ. More on that below.

Getting back to UFC 300, nothing from UFC 100 or UFC 200 – or maybe any card in UFC history for that matter – had a moment quite like the one we saw at the conclusion of the BMF Title fight.

This is what Holloway said was going through his mind when he decided to point to the centre of the canvas, stand his ground and start swinging to end the final round: “That this is the moment. That this is what BMFs is known for. … If that’s not a BMF moment, I don’t know what is. 

“If the cards were flipped and Justin felt like he was up, I know he would give me that 10-second shot. He’s a bad man, and I don’t know if I’m ever gonna share the Octagon with him again. He’s a legend. This is the type of stuff you do to etch your name in the history books. I’m just happy that I was the one landing. He missed some shots, and I was getting hurt by the wind of his shots. That’s how hard he hits.”

Holloway and Gaethje both earned a Fight of the Night award for their performance and the former featherweight champ also won a Performance of the Night for the finish, bumping his bonus total for the night to $600,000.

“I’m in great spirits with my family,” Gaethje wrote on social media after the event. “Thanks for all the love. What a sport. (Max) you’re a dog. Congrats. Well deserved double bonus.”

White announced prior to the event the organization would increase the fight night bonuses for UFC 300 to $300,000 as opposed to the usual $50,000.

Jiri Prochazka was the only other bonus recipient thanks to his comeback TKO of Alexsandar Rakic.

White hinted after UFC 300 he would “take care” of the other athletes that earned bonus-worthy finishes overshadowed by Holloway, Gaethje and Prochazka.

If Alex Pereira got any PPV points – and hopefully he did! – then he’s probably OK missing out on a bonus for his KO of Jamahal Hill. 

“Poatan” described his hand as calibrated when he met fellow Brazilian Charles Oliveira during fight week.

Pereira’s left hook is feared in two sports, kickboxing and MMA, and he ended yet another fight with his best punch. 

“I wanted to fight five rounds, but if the knockout would happen that was what I was going to do,” Pereira said. “He behaved not so good. He was respectful during the week then he did what he did during the press conference and the weigh-ins. So honestly, the least that I could do was just that to him.”

The 13-fight card from T-Mobile Arena was chock full of BMF moments and its most alpha moment was saved for the main event when Pereira received a groin kick from Hill, waved off the referee without breaking eye contact with his opponent and the next strike he threw ended the fight.

“That was incredibly gangster,” White said of the knockout sequence.

The first all-Chinese title fight in UFC history ended up going the full 25 minutes and did you notice how refreshed Yan Xiaonan looked after her mid-fight nap?

Zhang Weili sunk in a rear-naked choke late in Round 1 which Xiaonan refused to tap and when the round was over she was not with it. She had briefly gone to sleep as the broadcast team of Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier pointed out yet the fight was allowed to continue.

“I really thought that she was out,” the strawweight champ said after defending her title via unanimous decision.

There were no scorecard controversies and unless you were a bettor with a stoppage prop bet or a round total prop it’s all water under the bridge although Zhang probably would’ve liked another stoppage win added to her lengthy list of her accomplishments.

Also, the judgement by the referee was an interesting one. 

The situation reminded me somewhat of Merab Dvalishvili’s only stoppage loss in MMA when he was unconscious at the end of the final round of his second UFC appearance against Ricky Simon. The final horn sounded with Dvalishvili in a mounted choke, didn’t tap, yet referee Marc Goddard ruled the fight a technical submission loss at 5:00 of Round 3 once it was clear the fighter was out of it.

Charles Oliveira wasn’t the only person Arman Tsarukyan punched on Saturday night. During his walk to the Octagon, the lightweight contender had an encounter with a fan.

“He showed me ‘(expletive) you’ and he wanted to punch me and I wanted to punch him back,” Tsarukyan said. “That’s it. So guys, no one show me ‘(expletive) you.’ It doesn’t matter who you are, I’m going to punch you in the face. You can show me ‘(expletive)’ from like 200 metres, I’m not going to punch you. But when you’re close to me, it’s, like automatically, I’m from Russia. Don’t do that, please, or I’m going to go to prison in the U.S.”

White was asked about Tsarukyan’s fan exchange and he said casually: “We’re probably gonna get sued. We’ll deal with that on Monday too.” 

Tsarukyan’s win put him even closer to a title shot. Islam Makhachev’s next opponent hadn’t been finalized prior to UFC 300. A split decision over three rounds in which he had to survive multiple Oliveira submission attempts was not, in the UFC’s opinion, enough for him to get his desired rematch against Makhachev. With Gaethje also losing Saturday, the next shot instead will go to Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 302 in June.

Style-wise, Tsarukyan offers Makachev the toughest matchup of all the top-ranked 155-pound contenders. Go rewatch Tsarukyan’s debut against Makhachev, which won Fight of the Night, then consider how much he has improved in the years since and tell me he doesn’t have a realistic shot at bettering the current titleholder. Also, while you’re at it, go back and rewatch Tsarukyan’s five-round fight with Mateusz Gamrot from a couple years ago. It’s his only other loss in the UFC and it’s a phenomenal example of what MMA can be yet enough people talk about.

The newest star within the bantamweight divisions is Kayla Harrison who has her sights set on the women’s 135-pound title after winning her UFC debut in dominant fashion. She tapped former champion and future Hall of Famer Holly Holm and it caught the attention of the fighter considered the GOAT of women’s MMA.

“Oh my god, that’s so cute. She can’t handle not being in the spotlight, huh?” Harrison told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter, reacting to the social media video Amanda Nunes posted after Harrison’s call-out of current champ Raquel Pennington. “You’re not the champion. That’s why I didn’t call you out, baby, but you’re welcome to come back.”

Nunes announced her retirement last summer but the former two-weight champion has on occasion teased a comeback, which has been frustrating for the women actively competing in the division. Harrison’s arrival in the UFC and the way she performed in her debut was huge for a division that needed some life breathed into it. If Harrison continues her ascension and wins gold in the UFC just like she did twice at the Olympics for judo, then a Harrison vs. Nunes PPV headliner in 2025 is something fight fans would gobble up.

“I like it. I like that she’s intrigued. I thought that she retired too soon,” White added.

Bobby Green and Jim Miller didn’t win Fight of the Night but they both put on that type of effort. It was a showcase of Green’s underappreciated skill set and another example of why Miller has been so revered through multiple eras of the sport.

“I can smell the blood from the booth,” John Anik proclaimed late in the preliminary bout ask Green nearly finish Miller with strikes in the third round.

Miller joined a trio of former champions – Holloway, Frankie Edgar and all-time Octagon cage time leader Rafael dos Anjos – by surpassing seven hours of total UFC fight time during the first round against Green.

Miller couldn’t complete the sweep but the current UFC wins leader is the only fighter to compete in this triumvirate: he fought at UFC 100 in 2009, UFC 200 in 2016 and at UFC 300 in 2024.

If the theme of the night was being a BMF, Miller’s bloody face was the first image at UFC 300 that represented it.