Newly crowned BMF champion Max Holloway put on one of the craziest performances we’ve seen in a long time at this past Saturday’s UFC 300.
Now he finally explains his decision to put everything on the line to stand and bang with Justin Gaethje with ten seconds left of the final round, even though he was winning the fight.
“Man, I was winning. I did it before. It was only right, you know what I mean?” Holloway said. “If it was flipped — people said I was up, but you never know with the judges. If Gaethje was pitching a shutout, I know he’d give me the 10 seconds because he’s a BMF.”
The win gave the Hawaiian a hefty $600,000 post-fight bonus.
“I was just blessed enough to land my punch first. We were in there swinging, the wind from his punches was hurting. The guy hits hard. The guy is like a titan… He’s built different,” Holloway said about Gaethje.
With the BMF belt around his waist, and a Fight of the Year performance, the former featherweight champion put himself in a very good position to claim another shot at the 145 lbs title fight.
In fact, reigning featherweight champion Ilia Topuria already said that Holloway is next in line.
“I’m really happy because we just saw Holloway win, so I just realized I will have two belts instead of one,” Topuria told ESPN. “Let’s see. Nothing concrete, but there was a big chance that if walked out victorious of the octagon he could be next. I’m not sure if he is hurt. I hope not so he can come back soon and we can have a fight.”