UFC 300, a fight card that opened with two former UFC champions competing in the curtain-jerker and ended with two title fights (and one symbolic title fight), delivered all that it promised and more.
On the early prelims, Bobby Green and Jim Miller delivered a bloody battle between two veteran competitors who had combined for more than 100 professional MMA contests. On the prelims, former PFL champion Kayla Harrison delivered a statement-making win in her UFC debut against former UFC champion Holly Holm. Then, on the main card, Bo Nickal remained unbeaten, Arman Tsarukyan continued his climb up the lightweight rankings, Max Holloway delivered a legend-solidifying performance in capturing the BMF title, Zhang Weili retained her UFC strawweight belt in the co-main event, and Alex Pereira retained his UFC light heavyweight crown with a knockout in the UFC 300 main event.
In short, UFC 300 was a memorable night full of excitement and action.
UFC 300 took place on Saturday, April 13, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card streamed on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
Below, we look at the winners and losers from the UFC 300 fight card.
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Winners
Alex Pereira: UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira showed that his power is on another level, finishing former champ Jamahal Hill 3:14 into the first round of the main event of UFC 300. With the win, Pereira defended the title he won in November 2023 with a TKO over Jiri Prochazka. In his three UFC fights at light heavyweight, Pereira has defeated three former UFC 205-pound titleholders.
Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan: In the first UFC championship fight between two Chinese fighters, Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan engaged in a memorable matchup, showing that the champion was a better overall fighter than the challenger. Xiaonan did a good job with her striking, especially when it came to her counters, but it was Weili's grappling skills that made the difference in the fight.
Weili retained her title in the evening's co-main event, scoring a 49-45 x 3 decision win.
Max Holloway: Max Holloway moved up to lightweight for UFC 300 and delivered what might have been the most memorable performance of his Hall of Fame career, capturing the (symbolic) BMF title by face-planting Justin Gaethje with one second left in their five-round war.
Holloway's boxing skills were too much for Gaethje. He controlled the pace and range of the fight while eating every heavy leg kick that Gaethje threw his way. There was also the spinning back kick that seemed to break Gaethje's nose in the final second of the first round.
Holloway's performance would have been noteworthy even without the last-second knockout, that he delivered a stoppage at that time, in that way, puts Holloway's UFC 300 performance into legendary status.
Justin Gaethje: Justin Gaethje had a good 4:59 of the first round, landing some heavy low kicks, but the tide of the fight changed after Max Holloway landed a spinning kick to Gaethje’s nose at the end of the first round.
Gaethje struggled to find his punching range in the next two rounds, but he found openings in the fourth stanza.
Gaethje showed toughness and heart, but Holloway’s boxing skills were just too much for him during the five-round war.
Arman Tsarukyan: Arman Tsarukyan had never faced a submission attempt as a member of the UFC roster before Saturday night. He got that out of the way early in the first round of his UFC 300 bout against Charles Oliveira, with Tsarukyan working through a deep guillotine choke, and then reversing the former UFC lightweight titleholder.
What truly stood out about Tsarukyan's approach was his calmness in the face of danger. Despite Oliveira's active guard, Tsarukyan never let frustration get the better of him. Instead, he patiently waited for openings to land slicing elbows late in the round, cutting the former champ.
Tsarukyan did a great job of controlling things on the feet throughout the fight while battling through four submission attempts. In the end, the matchup between the two elite lightweights was a very close one, but Tsarukyan got the split decision nod. The win could launch the up-and-coming 155-pounder, who is on a four-fight winning streak, into a rematch with current UFC lightweight champ, Islam Makhachev. The two fought in 2019 in Tsarukyan's UFC debut. Makhachev won that fight via unanimous decision
Charles Oliveira: Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira came very close to finishing Arman Tsarukyan in the early moments of the first round, but after that, Tsarukyan dominated most of the fight, except for the final 30 seconds when he locked on another choke.
Oliveira lost the fight by a close split decision, but the setback won't cause the ex-champ to fall too far in the rankings, as he put on a fantastic performance and never gave up, as evidenced by his late choke attempt at the end of the third stanza.
Bo Nickal: Bo Nickal was unhappy with his performance against Cody Brundage, a second-round submission win. The three-time NCAA Wrestling champion puts an excessive amount of pressure on himself, which can be both good and bad.
Nickal does not have much MMA experience—he moved to 6-0 after UFC 300—but he deserves the attention he is getting, and he’s only going to get better with time.
Jiri Prochazka: Despite taking a lot of damage to his legs in the opening round of his light heavyweight matchup opposite Aleksandar Rakic, Prochazka controlled where the fight took place during most of the first round. He had no respect for Rakic's striking, and that disdain paid off in the second round as he got Rakic to engage in a striking battle that Rakic was unprepared for, leading to Prochazka finishing the bout via strikes.
I'm not sure how well Prochazka's no-defense approach will work against harder-hitting strikers, but it worked well for him at UFC 300.
Aljamain Sterling: Aljamain Sterling moved up to featherweight and dominated the No. 8 ranked Calvin Kattar, picking up eight takedowns and 10:43 of control time. However, he did not do a lot of damage or pick up a submission attempt over the course of the fight. If Sterling had hoped to move up and earn a quick title shot, it’s not likely to happen after UFC 300. With that being said, Sterling did what Sterling does in his UFC featherweight debut using his ground game to pick up a win.
Kayla Harrison: The most challenging thing Kayla Harrison had to deal with at UFC 300 was making the bantamweight limit. The former PFL lightweight champ did that on Friday, checking in at 136 pounds. On Saturday, Harrison ran over former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm, dominating every aspect of the fight.
With how easily Harrison dispatched Holm, finishing her via rear-naked choke in the second round and limiting her to two landed significant strikes, it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for Holm under the UFC banner, but a UFC title shot is in the mix.
Diego Lopes: Diego Lopes made a statement on Saturday. The 29-year-old Brazilian scored two knockdowns via two right uppercuts on his way to finishing Sodiq Yusuff in the first round via ground strikes. On his way to the knockout, Lopes limited Yusuff to two landed significant strikes.
With the victory, Lopes is on a three-fight winning streak.
Yusuff entered the bout as the No. 14 fighter in the official UFC rankings. Look for Lopes to be in those rankings when they are updated following UFC 300.
Renato Moicano: Renato Moicano didn’t do much with his ground control during the first round of his bout opposite Jalin Turner. However, that changed in the second stanza when he used a takedown to end the fight with ground strikes.
With the win, Moicano has the first three-fight winning streak of his UFC career since he opened his run with the promotion 3-0 between 2014 and 2017.
Bobby Green: On Saturday, Bobby Green put together one of the finest performances of his long MMA career, dominating Jim Miller over the course of 15 violent minutes at UFC 300. Green picked Miller apart with a steady diet of jabs, bloodying him while landing 186 significant strikes to Miller's 57.
Deiveson Figueiredo: Deiveson Figueiredo was poised and confident but not very busy during the first five minutes of his 135-pound fight opposite Cody Garbrandt. The ex-flyweight champ almost seemed dismissive of the power of Garbrandt, which became more apparent when he waded through some big strike attempts to get a takedown early in the second stanza.
That takedown allowed Figueiredo to lock up an arm triangle with a lot of time left in the round, but he could not force the tap from Garbrandt, who remained very calm during the submission attempt. However, Figueiredo never gave up control on the mat, later securing a rear-naked choke when Garbrandt tried to get off his back.
Figueiredo looked excellent in dismantling a former 135-pound champion.
With his win at UFC 300, the former UFC flyweight champion is now 2-0 at 135 pounds.
UFC 300 Fighters: The UFC matchmakers put together a stacked card on paper. The fighters then did their part on Saturday in delivering a fantastic night of fights.
UFC: The graphics, the old intro, “Face the Pain,” the throw back videos that the production team produced for the event, all made UFC 300 something special. The UFC production team stepped it up for this event, and that effort did not go unappreciated.
Losers
Cody Brundage: Cody Brundage looked like his game plan was to survive and hope for an opening. He did not survive, and Bo Nickal did not give him an opening.
Aleksandar Rakic: Rakic used low leg kicks early and often to slow the movement of former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka. That approach worked well, as Prochazka was bothered by those kicks, but it did not stop Prochazka from trying to move forward, and that proved to be Rakic’s undoing.
Calvin Kattar: Calvin Kattar had nothing to offer Aljamain Sterling. Expect Kattar, who was the No. 8 ranked UFC featherweight heading into UFC 300, to drop in those rankings.
Kattar is now on a three-fight losing skid and 1-4 dating back to 2021.
Holly Holm: Holly Holm seemed to make a mistake in the first round by clinching with Kayla Harrison. Things did not go well for her throughout the fight.
Sodiq Yusuff: Sodiq Yusuff’s run as a ranked UFC featherweight likely ended on Saturday when Diego Lopes knocked him out in the first round. With the loss, the 30-year-old, who opened his run with the promotion with a 6-1 record, has now lost two in a row.
Jalin Turner: Jalin Turner dropped Moicano late in that stanza, but he allowed Moicano to get back to his feet, thinking that referee Herb Dean was going to wave off the fight. A stoppage was not guaranteed had Turner followed his foe to the mat, but it might have happened. Instead, Moicano finished the bout in the second round via ground strikes.
Jim Miller: On Saturday, Jim Miller became the only fighter to compete at UFC 100, UFC 200, and UFC 300. He fought with a lot of heart and guts, but Bobby Green dominated him in a bloody battle in the second fight of the night.
Cody Garbrandt: Cody Garbrandt entered UFC 300 on a two-fight winning streak. The former UFC bantamweight champion could not make it three in a row, submitting to Deiveson Figueiredo late in the second round.
On a positive note, Garbrandt looked good in the first round when the fight was on the feet, but once the bout hit the mat, Garbrandt had nothing to offer Figueiredo.
Fans who were not in their seats for the opening fight: I understand the concept of being fashionably late. I even get that some of the events the UFC has been presenting as of late have been, let’s say, less than deep, but UFC 300 was not one of those events. There was no excuse for every fan who purchased a ticket not to be in their seat for the opening fight of UFC 300.
