UFC 300 Technical Breakdown: BMF Bodywork and Brawls

How Max Holloway was both the most skillful and most violent fighter at UFC 300.

Risk and Reward

Max Holloway didn’t need to take a fight at lightweight. After all, his first attempt against Dustin Poirier resulted in the end of his thirteen fight win streak.

And to top it off, his UFC 300 opponent Justin Gaethje just knocked Poirier out less than a year ago. Why would the current and perennial number one contender at featherweight risk the momentum of his last two victories for a made-up “BMF” title?

The same reason why a fighter who was clearly outclassing his opponent over five rounds would decide to point to the center of the Octagon and invite one of the hardest-hitting lightweights to slug it out with him for the final ten seconds.

That’s just who Max Holloway is, and it provided us all with an unforgettable moment as Holloway punctuated his stellar performance with an all-time great knockout.

It was a moment that was so overwhelmingly visceral that it needed several days to start to wear off enough before we could go back and appreciate all the wonderful display of technical competence that allowed Holloway to create it.

The Return of Gaethje’s Pressure

In anticipation of this matchup is was easy to imagine that Gaethje would be content to continue the approach we’ve seen from him since he restructured his game after his first two career loses.

However, it was evident within the first minute that his coach Trevor Wittman wanted him to pressure Holloway. This makes sense given Holloway’s vulnerabilities moving backward and his ability to snowball his offense when he’s given the initiative.

Part of the problem though was it seems like Gaethje is just not that guy anymore. And who can blame him?

Wittman has spent the better part of six years trying to reign in the reckless aggression that characterized Gaethje when he was an undefeated prospect.

There are plenty of examples in this fight where Wittman was screaming at Gaethje to pressure but was unable to coax him to do it.

But perhaps the bigger issue was that even when Gaethje had some successful moments of pressure, he kept giving Holloway easy escapes by wildly overswinging and missing.

Pressure was an important part of Gaethje’s gameplan, but he kept giving Holloway easy escapes when he overthrew his punches.

Not only did Gaethje lack the discipline to maintain a patient and steady pressure, but Holloway was also just more game off the back foot than he probably anticipated.

One particularly useful anti-pressure tool that Holloway utilized was his spinning back kick. When Gaethje charged forward at the end of the first round, Holloway met his forward momentum with a kick that broke his nose.

In his past life as a pressure fighter, Gaethje’s leg kicks were his most important tool for cutting off his opponent’s escapes. While Gaethje certainly had success kicking Holloway this fight, he didn’t try much to throw them while moving forward or to cut off the cage.

It must have been frustrating for Wittman to see Gaethje get Holloway to the fence and instead of trapping him there with low kicks, he would just step in with a telegraphed overhand right and let Holloway easily sneak out the side.