LAS VEGAS -- It took a long time to come together. The pieces didn't fit exactly right until the final moments, when UFC CEO Dana White announced following UFC 298 on Feb. 17 that the main event of UFC 300 would pit champion Alex Pereira against former champion Jamahal Hill in the main event of UFC 300. But even when the slate of fights was announced, there was an inexplicable grumpiness among certain portions of the MMA fan base.
Brock Lesnar wasn't on the card, a small but loud contingent wailed. Of course, Lesnar hadn't fought since UFC 300 on July 9, 2016, a span of 2,836 days, but that didn't matter to them.
More cried that Ronda Rousey wouldn't be coming back to compete. Rousey hadn't fought since UFC 207 on Dec. 30, 2016, or in 2,662 days.
There were complaints that neither Georges St-Pierre, who has fought once in the last 11 years, nor Khabib Nurmagomedov, who hasn't competed since Oct. 24, 2020, were coming back to fight. I'm sure there was someone somewhere upset that Tank Abbott wasn't added to the card, but hey, that's the state of a large part of the MMA fan base.
MMA fans are hard to please, for sure, but this nostalgia that was shown for the sport's early days made little sense.
This was the greatest night in mixed martial arts history, a night when virtually every fight delivered and there were, as White likes to say, numerous holy shit moments.
Nothing could top Max Holloway's last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje in the BMF title fight. Holloway shouted to Gaethje with about 20 seconds left and pointed to the center of the Octagon. Amid the tumult, Gaethje knew what it meant, and herecognized that Holloway was giving him one final chance. Holloway had the fight won, without question, and risked everything he'd worked so hard for by calling Gaethje to the center to slug it out with him in the waning seconds. Gaethje is a pure knockout puncher, and the only way he could have won at that point is by a knockout.
Afterward, Holloway had the best explanation of Gaethje's insane power.
"He missed some shots, [and] I was getting hurt by the wind on the shots," Holloway said at the post-fight news conference. "That’s how hard he hits."
Holloway, though, knew what he was doing. But had he been the one face-planted and knocked unconscious in the final second to lose the bout, it would have been one of the greatest missteps in professional sports history. Instead, it's a moment that will be relived repeatedly over the years and which made Holloway a mainstream celebrity. The sound of the crowd was unforgettable, and the finish so remarkable that White, who frequently shouts that he hates the media, raced over to the other side of the Octagon to speak to a couple of reporters to excitedly ask if they could believe what they'd just seen.
The knockout resonated so much that the clip of the KO that White shared on his Instagram account received 26.3 million views and 1.5 million likes. It received 3.1 million likes when the UFC Instagram account shared it.
It wasn't just Holloway, though, who made this card one for the ages.
Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
Kayla Harrison celebrates her finish of Holly Holm at an epic UFC 300 show.
Who will forget the moment that Alex Pereira pushed referee Herb Dean aside as Dean was jumping in to call time in the main event after Jamahal Hill kicked Pereira low? Pereira put his right arm out to push Dean back, and the fight continued. Seconds later -- literally, a handful of seconds later -- and the fight was over. Pereira landed a crushing left and it was good night for Sweet Dreams.
Las Vegas crowds are notorious for being late arrivals, but it was loud from the first moment and more than 9,000 of what would eventually be a crowd of 20,0067 were in their seats when ex-bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt made the walk.
Fight after fight was outstanding, and only the featherweight bout between Aljamain Sterling and Calvin Kattar could be considered less than average on an excitement scale. Kayla Harrison lived up to the extraordinary hype by submitting former champion Holly Holm. Charles Oliveira lost a classic to Arman Tsarukyan in a fight that had Oliveira going for a fight-ending D'Arce choke in the waning seconds that Tsarukyan managed to survive.
Jalin Turner thought he'd finished Renato Moicano with a one-hitter quitter and raised his arms in celebration. The problem was, Moicano survived and got knocked out himself. Diego Lopes blew through tough Sodiq Yusuff in 90 seconds, his third consecutive UFC win in around 90 seconds, stamping himself a legitimate title contender.
There were five knockouts and three submissions among the 13 fights. Even the fights that went to decision were jaw-dropping. Who will forget Yan Xiaonan dropping Zhang Weili several times and taking her down hard in their championship bout after she was nearly choked unconscious in the first round and almost beaten to a pulp with ground-and-pound in the second? The show was trending No. 1 on Chinese social media platforms, in large part because of that bout and the spirited way they both fought.
"That's the first time we've really broken through in China," White said.
It was a breakthrough everywhere. This card is going to resonate, and have stickiness. There were a lot of people watching for the first time, and if you were one of them, aren't you going to come back for more after seeing that?
It was the perfect night for a sport that, despite its growth, still sometimes sees itself as a second-class citizen.
This, though, was big-time.
Even the mainstream has to feel that now.
Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY SPORTS
Justin Gaethje is out cold and is attended to by Nevada Athletic Commission doctors following his loss to Max Holloway at UFC 300.