Jump to
Two major fights announced for UFC 300
UFC CEO Dana White today announced that “BMF” champ Justin Gaethje will defend his title against ex-featherweight kingpin Max Holloway. He also announced that beloved veteran Jim Miller will face Bobby Green on the same card.
These bouts will be on the same card as the already announced Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan for the women’s strawweight title. The event is set for April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Gaethje claimed the BMF by KO’ing Poirier
Justin Gaethje won the prestigious BMF title by knocking out Dustin Poirier in a rematch at UFC 291, avenging his 2018 loss to Poirier. Many expected Gaethje to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title but it looks like he’ll be battling for a different belt instead.
Holloway for his part is boxed out of the featherweight title due to losing to current champ Alexander Volkanovski three times. Max is coming off a big win where he retired fan favorite Chan Sung Jung, aka “the Korean Zombie” at UFC Singapore.
Jim Miller is coming off a big win this past weekend over Gabriel Benetiz at UFC Las Vegas 84.
Seriously, is the BMF belt going to headline UFC 300?
Forgive me for being old school, but I watched UFC 100 live. It rocked.
Here’s how Bloody Elbow’s Steph Haynes described that card: “UFC 100 was the OG certified banger. It was a magical event that was stacked from top to bottom. The headliner was Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir and Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves was the co-main event. Dan Henderson would get one of the most famous knockouts in the sport, forcing Michael Bisping into the unfortunate spot of becoming an instant meme. Mark Coleman would log his last win inside the UFC against the late Stephan Bonnar.
“UFC 100 did Iron Man numbers too. At 1.6M PPV buys, it set the standard by which all other cards are judged. That number has been matched once and eclipsed only three times. All three times were with Conor McGregor in the headlining spot and the single event that matched UFC 100 evenly also featured the Irishman in the main event.”
UFC 200 was a bit more of a kludge. Steph told the tale well: “UFC 200 was not the same animal and ended up being a shell of what it was intended to be. Much like 100, this card happened during International Fight Week and marked the second time the promotion hosted three events in a one week span. Initially, it was booked to be a mega-card, but a series of unfortunate events turned it into something else.
“With Conor McGregor booked to face Nate Diaz in the rematch and Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier for title unification was set as the co-main event. However, both those fights would end up in the scrap pile. McGregor and company brass would end up at odds over pay and Conor’s ‘retirement’ that lasted two days and his refusal to attend a press conference.
“The company announced Jones vs. Cormier II as the new main event, but Jon Jones would be the root cause of that falling though. Just three days before the event, Jones would test positive for a banned substance and was pulled from the event. Anderson Silva would step in to face Cormier and Amanda Nunes’ fight with Miesha Tate would be billed as the main event.
“It would go on to draw a little over 1M PPV buys but is widely considered to be a dud considering the magnitude of the event.”
The problem for the UFC this time is they don’t even have the roster quality to put on a mega event. There’s literally nothing they can book that will engage fandom’s imagination the way Jones vs Cormier or Lesnar vs Mir did.