White: Holloway's KO was 'holy shit moment of all time'
It would be an understatement to say UFC CEO Dana White was left awestruck by Max Holloway's last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 on Saturday.
"People always ask me what I do," White said at the postfight press conference. "I sell holy shit moments for a living. That was the ultimate holy shit moment of all time. If you were at home, if you were in a bar, or if you were here live tonight, there's no bigger holy shit than that."
Holloway, the former featherweight champion, scored one of the craziest knockouts in UFC history in his highly anticipated BMF title bout against Gaethje, finishing him at the 4:59 mark of the fifth round. Holloway was winning on the scorecards and could have cruised to victory, but instead, he met Gaethje in the middle of the Octagon and pointed to the ground with 10 seconds left as a wild, back-and-forth exchange ensued. Both men landed punches but Holloway got the best of it, blasting Gaethje with a huge right hand to put him out cold.
White said Holloway's finish "totally embodied what that belt was built for."
"That's why Max Holloway is beloved - and Gaethje," White said. "How many times have you seen a fight where a guy wins, you know he's winning, they click the 10-second thing, and the guy puts his hands up and they just run around, move around. Nuh-uh. (Holloway)'s got the fight won, and he's in there with one of the most dangerous f-----g fighters in the business, and he says, 'Let's do this.' And they both f-----g oblige and they go in and just start - one second left and a knockout like that. That's like movie shit."
White awarded $300,000 bonuses to Holloway and Gaethje for Fight of the Night. (Holloway received $600,000 in total after also winning Performance of the Night.) White said he expects the matchup to win another honor at the end of 2024.
"It's the Fight of the Year," White said. "If something beats that for Fight of the Year, holy shit. I don't want to see the two guys that are involved in that fight at the end of the fight."