The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been the premiere promotion for mixed martial arts for over 30 years. Starting in 1994 as a single elimination tournament marketed as being “no holds barred” to prove which martial art is the best, the promotion has weathered the storm more times than one. From being banned in 36 states to almost being bankrupt to fierce, allegedly yakuza-adjacent competitors, the promotion has always come out on top in the end. The promotion held its biggest event of the decade April 13, UFC 300, which acts as both a celebration of the company’s legacy and the coming of a new era.

The event was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was headlined by two and-a-quarter title fights: Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill for the Light-Heavyweight Championship (205 pounds), Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan for the Strawweight Championship (115 pounds), and Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway for the BMF Championship. The event pulled in over $16 million in revenue for the stadium alone, the highest in its history. Though not revealed now, it is believed to have been bought over a million times. For perspective, it costs $79.99 to buy, making the minimum money earned only barely under $80 million. Those weren’t the only milestones. At the press conference, due to pressure from some journalists and fighters, UFC President Dana White decided to sextuple the usual amount for performance bonuses from $50,000 to $300,000, the highest in company history. This was also the event where the UFC finally introduced new gloves after years of fans and fighters complaining about the old ones, the intention being to decrease eye pokes, lower the risk of cuts and make strike counting easier. The fighters in title bouts were also allowed to have unique patterns on their fight trunks, the most notable being Holloway and Pereira’s due to how colorful they are and how they originate from their respective cultures of native Hawaii and the Pataxó Tribe native to Brazil.

The early prelims opened with a Bantamweight match between Deiveson Figueiredo, former two-time Flyweight (125 pounds) Champion/eighth-ranked Bantamweight, Deiveson Figueredo and Cody Garbrandt, former Bantamweight (135 1bs.) Champion/unranked. Both are hard-hitting counter-punchers who work primarily off the backfoot, and both came into the fight with good momentum. Figueredo was coming off a good win against Rob Font in his Bantamweight debut, earning him a No. 8 placement in the rankings, and Garbrandt rebounded from a losing streak with two wins, one of them being a first-round knockout. Garbrandt was the one pushing the pace of the fight and winning the striking battle with his superior athleticism in the first round. Figueredo implemented his wrestling in the second round to neutralize Garbrandt’s striking. Garbrandt, attempting to get up, exposed his neck to Figueredo, allowing him to sink in a rear-naked choke (while on their back, a fighter will wrap one of their arms around their opponent’s neck while pressing down on the back of their head with their non-occupied hand) and win by submission. Figueredo is now ranked No. 6 after the event.

The next fight was in the lightweight (155 pounds) division between 14th-ranked lightweight Bobby Green and Jim Miller. Both are long-time veterans of the sport. Miller has the distinction of formerly competing on UFC 100 and 200 and having the most bouts in the promotion at 43. While Green, in recent years, has faced and beaten better competition, he was coming off a brutal KO via a very late stoppage from Jalin Turner (who is also on the card) only a few months ago. So, questions about whether his chin could hold up against a shot from Miller were floating around. Minus occasionally rocking him, Miller was violently outclassed by Green with his superior speed, boxing and mid-fight trash talk. Green won by unanimous decision, and Miller was left bloody and bruised. This was probably the hardest fight for me to watch that night since I wanted Miller to win. In his post-fight interview, he called out Paddy Pimblett, a British fighter popular with regular audiences but controversial with hardcore fans. Despite winning, Green moved down to No. 15 after the event due to a fight on the main card.

The third fight was a women’s bout in the strawweight division between fourth-ranked strawweight/fifth-ranked women’s flyweight/former Strawweight champion Jéssica Andrade and sixth-ranked Marina Rodriguez. Andrade was entering the fight after a total knockout finish of seventh-ranked strawweight Mackenzie Dern, but before that, she was on a losing streak of one KO and two submissions. Rodriguez was 2-2 in her last four fights, coincidently both were by a decision and a TKO. It was a close one. Rodriguez was having great success with boxing at range due to her height and reach advantage, but Andrade’s dirty boxing up close and grappling was really messing up Rodriguez. Andrade won by split decision (two judges picked her, while the other picked Rodriguez), a verdict I agree with. Their rankings remained the same after the event.

The final fight of the early prelims was also in the lightweight division between 10th-ranked Turner and 13th-ranked Renato Moicano. Turner was coming off a vile finish of Green after two split decision losses, and Moicano has been 5-1 in his last six fights as well as building notoriety through post-fight interviews and social media presence. Moicano was looking good on the feet and the ground for most of the fight until getting dropped by Turner at the end of the first round. He didn’t get finished because Turner walked away and he thought the referee would call the fight after that. Moicano was able to take Turner down and TKO him on the ground in the second round. In his post-fight interview, the Brazilian proclaimed his love for the United States, the Constitution and the literature of economist Ludwig Von Mises, and pressured Joe Rogan to come onto his podcast. Moicano is now ranked No. 10 and Turner No. 12 after the event.

The prelims opened with a featherweight (145 pounds) bout between 13th-ranked Sodiq Yusuff and Unranked Diego Lopes. Lopes has been a force of nature in the UFC with two first-round finishes (submission and KO) since his short-notice debut and loss against the currently fifth-ranked Featherweight Movsar Evloev, where he put up an incredibly close fight. Yusuff is a lethal finisher but has stumbled recently with a close UD loss to currently 12th-ranked Edson Barboza. Lopes ran through Yusuff. He knocked him down twice with uppercuts and finished him with ground n’ pound within only a minute and a half. In his post-fight interview, he called out Mosvar Evloev and Featherweight Champion Illia Topuria for a fight in Spain, Topuria’s home country. Lopes and Yusuff are now ranked 14th and 15th respectively.

The next fight was a women’s Bantamweight bout between Holly Holm, former Bantamweight Champion/fifth-ranked, and Kayla Harrison, former PFL Women’s Lightweight Champion. Both are legends of women’s combat sports. This was Harrison’s debut in the UFC. She dominated most of her opponents in the PFL, a rival to the UFC, and only has one loss in her entire MMA career. Before that, she earned two gold medals at the 2010 and 2016 Olympics. Holm is considered one of the greatest female boxers of all time and the fighter to beat Ronda Rousey at the peak of her career, she hasn’t reached the same heights since then but has always been a perennial contender, even in her late 30s and 40s. Harrison dominated Holm with her grappling and strength, eventually getting a rear-naked choke in the second round. Harrison and Holm are now ranked No. 4 and No. 6 after the event.

The third fight was a Featherweight bout between eighth-ranked Calvin Kattar and Aljamain Sterling, former Bantamweight Champion/second-ranked Bantamweight. Both are coming off losses, Sterling via TKO in his fourth title defense against Sean O’Malley, current Bantamweight Champion, and Kattar via knee injury, making his return after nearly a year and a half. Sterling’s far superior grappling skills and awkward striking style allowed him to beat Kattar in a not-so-exciting unanimous decision. Sterling and Kattar are ranked eighth and ninth after the event.

The final fight of the prelims was a Light-Heavyweight bout between Jiří Procházka, former Light-Heavyweight Champion/second-ranked, and fifth-ranked Aleksandar Rakić. Erratic, bushido-minded knock-out artist Procházka’s last fight was against the current champ Pereira for the title, he lost by TKO in the second round, but it was generally a bad call by the referee since he wasn’t unconscious or taking repeated unanswered shots before stopping it. Rakić is a good striker, but he had a nearly two-year-long lay-off due to a knee injury he suffered in a fight with Jan Błachowicz, former Light-Heavyweight Champion. The first round was Rakić piecing up Procházka with leg kicks and straight punches, but Procházka kept moving forward and pressuring, eventually rocking him near the end of the round. In the second round, Rakić tried following his game plan, but Procházka rocked him again in the middle of the round. This started the finishing sequence where Procházka started swarming him with punches. Rakić tried recovering but was knocked down and started to receive ground n’ pound. He tried to get up but was receiving too many punches, so the referee stopped the fight. Procházka was one of three fighters to receive the $300,000 bonus promised at the press conference. Procházka and Rakić are ranked first and fourth after the event.

The first fight on the main card was at middleweight (185 pounds) between Bo Nickal and Cody Brundage, both unranked. Nickal is a wrestling phenom who won gold medals in multiple Division I tournaments multiple times in a row and burst into the UFC with all finishes. Brundage has had a hit-or-miss tenure in the UFC but did win his last fight by KO slam. The fight stirred controversy from hardcore fans due to being above fights with higher-level talent, believing it was only done to promote Nickal to general audiences. I think the fight didn’t prove them wrong. Despite being far less skilled on paper, Brundage showed good takedown defense against the accomplished wrestler and warded off multiple submission attempts. In the second round, Nickal was able to get a good position on Brundage’s back, secured a rear-naked choke and won. Nickal didn’t show anything too impressive, and the fight was just a standard one-sided grappling match. I would’ve put it on prelims.

The second fight of the main card was a Lightweight bout between former Lightweight Champion/first-ranked Charles Oliveira and fourth-ranked Arman Tsarukyan. Both are former opponents of the current champion, Islam Makhachev, who was coming off KO finishes of sixth-ranked Beneil Dariuish. Oliveira is a BJJ specialist with lethal striking power, while Tsarukyan is a strong, explosive wrestler. The fight was mostly a grappling match. Tsarukyan held the advantage for most of the match by holding Oliveira in full guard (a fighter lies on their back while keeping their opponent, who is usually on their knees or feet, in between their legs) while ground n’ pounding him. Oliveira was able to catch him in a submission twice in the match. In the first round with a guillotine (while in full guard, a fighter will wrap their arm around their opponent’s neck when their head is under their shoulder) and at the very end of the third round with a d’arce choke (a fighter wraps their arm around their opponent’s neck and shoulder), but Tsarukyan was able to squeeze his head out and was saved by the buzzer respectively. The fight was ruled a split decision for Tsarukyan. Tsarukyan and Oliveira are now ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

This fight was controversial amongst fans, with some believing Oliveira’s submission attempts won him round three, while others believed Tsarukyan’s control time and positioning won him round three. The rules value attacks that end the fight as quickly as possible more than cumulative actions, which Oliveira’s choke brought the fight closer to ending than any of Tsarukyan’s attacks. However, chokes aren’t like KOs, which are immediate but more accumulative since it takes some time to fully pass someone out, which Oliveira failed to do. If I was judging it at the moment, I might give it to Oliveira, but I wouldn’t oppose giving it to Tsarukyan.

The first “title” fight of the night was in the lightweight division for the BMF Championship between Gaethje, former Interim Lightweight Champion/BMF Champion, and second-ranked Holloway, Featherweight/former Interim and then former official Featherweight champion. This was a technical brawl between a power striker and a stupidly durable swarmer. Both were coming off a decision win against a rising prospect and KOing a contemporary in their divisions after failed title runs. Holloway was moving up a weight class, the last time he tried doing so being unsuccessful — despite probably having the pound-for-pound most durable chin in MMA history, the damage he received over his career was not insignificant. Gaethje is at least the second hardest hitter at Lightweight who just beat the guy (Dustin Poirier) who defeated Holloway at both Featherweight and Lightweight. Many people were expecting Gaethje to be the first fighter to KO him.

The fight was awarded Fight of The Night, and the winner was given a performance bonus. Holloway was piecing up Gaethje on the feet throughout the fight. Despite not being considered a powerful puncher, Holloway rocked him at least once in each of the five rounds and broke his nose. Gaethje was having a little success with leg kicks, was able to land some good punches, and seemingly knocked Holloway down in the fourth round (it was later determined to just be Holloway losing his balance), but Holloway was able to take all his best shots and return fire at a much higher degree. The fight was nearing its conclusion in the fifth round, and Holloway essentially won the fight already but decided to tell Gaethje to get in the center of the ring and just start brawling with each other. In the last 10 seconds, they both started windmilling and throwing all their weight into their punches when, at the literal last second, Holloway landed flush on Gaethje’s chin, putting him to sleep. The sounds from the audience were deafening.

Both fighters were given $300,000 each for the fight. Holloway was given an extra $300,000 for his performance and became the new BMF champion. In his post-fight interview, he called out both Topuria, Featherweight Champion and Lightweight Champion, Makachev, both of whom he has a very good argument fighting both now. Despite dominating and knocking Gaethje out, he’s now only ranked No. 9 at Lightweight while Gaethje is ranked No. 3, a full six ranks above him. My best guess as to why is because Holloway is targeting a return to featherweight. If he loses to Topuria and goes back to lightweight, they want to justify making him take at least a couple more fights at lightweight to earn a title shot, so he can’t just get one for free. If he wins against Topuria and decides not to come back, he’s ranked in such a way that it’ll be easy to push his name down the list, so he can’t just hoard a ranking from someone else. These are just my thoughts, so don’t take them as fact.

The co-main event is for the Strawweight Championship between two-time Champion Zhang Weili and first-ranked Yan Xiaonan. This was the first title fight in UFC history to be held between two Chinese fighters, respectively being the first Chinese champion and the first Chinese female fighter signed to the promotion. Both come from striking backgrounds, but Zhang has made grappling a far greater aspect of her arsenal in recent years. Zhang is defending her second belt for the second time after dominating her last challenger, and Yan is coming off a KO win over former Strawweight Champion Andrade and a close majority decision (two scored it for the winner while one scored it a draw) over Dern. The fight was like Zhang’s last fight where she neutralized Yan’s striking with her grappling and outstruck her most of the fight. Yan was nearly finished in the second round by a rear-naked choke but was saved by the buzzer. She was even briefly unconscious after Zhang let go. She won the third round by getting a knockdown and some takedowns, but she lost the remaining rounds handily. Zhang was given the unanimous decision. Zhang passed her previous reign’s title defenses, and Yan is now ranked second after the event.

The main event was for the Light-Heavyweight Championship between Pereira, former Middleweight Champion/Light-Heavyweight Champion, and former Champion Jamahal Hill. This was Pereira’s first title defense at Light-Heavyweight. Still riding momentum from his Middleweight run with his feud against former long-time Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya, He was able to get a shot at the title after only one win at Light-Heavyweight against former Champion Błachowicz, where he defeated another former Champ, Procházka via early TKO stoppage. Jamahal Hill was the former champion but never lost the title. He vacated it after suffering an injury to his Achilles tendon playing basketball. The person he beat to get the title was the now-retired Glover Teixeira, who is now coaching Pereira. Both are good power punchers; Pereira had the big edge in experience from his kickboxing career, alongside having powerful calf kicks and a left hand that’s able to KO anyone on the planet. The fight started with both gauging their distances and throwing some light shots. Hill accidentally kicked Pereira near his crotch area. The referee was about to step in until Pereira stopped him by just turning his hand to face him without looking at him. The referee allowed it to continue, and Pereira proceeded to drop him with a left hook and finish him with ground n’ pound in the first round. Pereira’s team gave him a BJJ black belt despite not shooting a single takedown or submission in the fight. Pereira has one official title defense under him, and Hill is now ranked No. 3 after the event.

A great way to end a great card. I wouldn’t consider it the best card of all time. Some of the fights weren’t all that exciting or notable, but their highs far outweighed the lows. This is a card I would recommend to anyone who wants to get into MMA or at least see what it entails.