Following last night’s action-packed UFC 300 event in Las Vegas the recipients of the evening’s specially boosted $300,000 bonus awards were announced.
It’s no big secret that Max Holloway completed stole the show last night with his stunning knockout victory over Justin Gaethje in literally the last second of their 25 minute battle and so inevitably this war for the ages ended up receiving ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors.
The fight-ending sequence couldn’t have been more fitting for a fight that had the symbolic ‘BMF’ title on the line. With just 10 seconds remaining in the fight Holloway pointed to the center of the Octagon twice, setting up a pistols-at-dawn scenario that Gaethje duly obliged too.
They then both started swinging for the fences with reckless abandon in an attempt to take each others head off. As punches flew left, right and center Holloway ducked, ripped to the body with two punches and then came upstairs with a right hook that instantly switched off Gaethje’s lights, sending him sliding face-first onto the canvas for as jaw-dropping a finish as you’ll ever see in a fight.
That magnitude of that moment meant it was only right to also award ‘Blessed’ another $300,000 ‘Performance Of The Night’ bonus too, and as stunning as the finish was it’s also worth stressing that Holloway was already in command of the fight and on his way to certain victory when he decided to throw caution to the wind, having pieced up Gaethje in style over five rounds, breaking his nose in the process, while also ignoring the pain from the brutal leg kicks from his opponent that had left his lead limb badly swollen.
The other $300,000 performance bonus was handed to Jiri Prochazka, who came off second-best for much of his fight with Aleksandar Rakic, but didn’t let that stop him from marching forward regardless on the offensive midway through the second round, and that paid off when he rocked his rival with a right hand and then got him to the mat, where a ground-and-pound barrage sealed the former champ’s comeback TKO victory.
