Former UFC featherweight champion and pound-for-pound great Max Holloway has been in some incredible back-and-forth wars across his 12 years competing inside the Octagon, racking up six “Fight of the Night” performance bonuses along the way.
But despite the violence “Blessed” Max Holloway has endured — against some of the hardest hitters in the game — the Hawaiian has yet to be knocked out in 32 professional fights.
But Justin Gaethje is hoping to end that streak when they hook ‘em up for the “BMF” belt at UFC 300 in April.
Justin Gaethje wants to break the unbreakable, finish Max Holloway like he did Tony Ferguson at UFC 300.
“I have 25 wins and 20 knockouts, I’m pretty proud of that,” Gaethje told ESPN. “That’s one thing I tried to sustain throughout my career, purposefully. So yeah, that’s something that I’m shooting for. Same thing with Tony Ferguson. Nobody had ever finished him. I didn’t knock him out in a traditional way, but I certainly created enough damage for that fight to be rightfully stopped. I would rather not get there [at UFC 300], I promise you that. This could be a war, a battle of attrition. If I can’t find him, then I can’t hurt him. He never stops. He’s constantly creating angles and constantly creating pressure and it could be a tough fight.”
The 35 year-old Justin Gaethje (25-4) became the first fighter to stop Tony Ferguson as part of the UFC 249 pay-per-view (PPV) event back in May 2020, a beating so brutal that “El Cucuy” never recovered, losing his next six fights (getting finished three times along the way).
Max Holloway, 32, will be moving up to lightweight for the first time since his Dustin Poirier loss in the UFC 236 headliner back in April 2019. “Blessed” (25-7) is coming off a knockout victory over Chan Sung Jung at UFC Singapore last August.
For the rest of the UFC 300 fight card and pay-per-view (PPV)
UFC 300 Main Card On ESPN+ PPV (10 p.m. ET):
- 170 lbs.: UFC Welterweight champion Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad (rumor)
- 115 lbs.: UFC Strawweight champion Weili Zhang vs. Xiaonan Yan
- 155 lbs.: Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway
- 155 lbs.: Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
- 205 lbs.: Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic
UFC 300 ‘Prelims’ Card on ESPN/ESPN+ (8 p.m. ET):
- 145 lbs.: Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling
- 185 lbs.: Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage
- 135 lbs.: Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- 135 lbs.: Holly Holm vs. Kayla Harrison
UFC 300 Early ‘Prelims’ Card on ESPN/ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET):
- 115 lbs.: Jessica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez
- 145 lbs.: Diego Lopes vs. Sodiq Yusuff
- 155 lbs.: Jim Miller vs. Bobby Green
