UFC 300 results: Watch the crazy finishes by Holloway and Pereira

Jessica Andrade just gave a good lesson in how to flip a fight. She looked to be in a tough spot midway through her bout against Marina Rodriguez, but in the final minute of the second round apparently decided that Rodriguez’s steady stream of strikes weren’t doing much damage.

Andrade pounced to the inside – a smart decision considering her considerable height deficit – and got Rodriguez so uncomfortable that she spent the last few moments just trying to last to the horn.

Andrade needed it, too, and the third round. She won only by a split decision, moving to 26-12-0 and putting herself back on track for an eventual title shot in the strawweight division.

For fans who have never seen Bobby Green fight, and are wondering what just happened, he’s built a career off of basically what he just displayed in this fight: Tons of trash talk, razor sharp jabs, unorthodox kicks and all of it coming from a confusing fight stance where Green’s hands are by his hips at all times. Green gets to his opponents' heads in more ways than one.

Many a man has left a Green fight with a bloodied face like Miller did just now (“It’s everywhere,” Daniel Cormier said as Miller's blood sprayed toward the broadcast booth).

While Green has faltered against the top of the lightweight division (one-sided losses to Islam Makhachev and Rafael Fiziev among others in recent years), his fights remains must-see even at age 37. If his striking continues to age as well as his smack talk, Green could be eying a trip up the lightweight rankings with a fight against another cagey vet like Rafael Dos Anjos or Dan Hooker.

Speaking with Joe Rogan after the win, Green called out the ever-popular lightweight Paddy Pimblett at the UFC event that will take place in Manchester, England. Pimblett hails from Liverpool.

After Deiveson Figueiredo’s dominant bantamweight win over Cody Garbrandt, the former featherweight champion could have eyes for Petr Yan or Marlon Vera in his next fight.

At 36 years old and with 27 career fights on his record, Figueiredo is looking to fast track his way into his new division’s title picture, and a win over Yan (the division’s former champion who is also coming off a win) or Vera (who just fell to bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley for the belt last month) could push Figueiredo another step closer.

There's a ton of chatter throughout the MMA world about how packed this card is, and some immediate evidence of that is how puzzling it is to watch Deiveson Figueiredo and Cody Garbrandt in the very first fight of the night, which Figueiredo won with a choke on the ground in Round 2.

Both of these fighters have been champions and headliners, and in UFC land that's usually enough to land a spot higher up the card, even if the timing of the bout doesn't make it a proper main event.

Of course, this is no ordinary card, though it should be noted that the UFC has always tried to make the non-pay-per-view portions of its events about hooking fans in to pay up for later in the evening (spending $79.99 on top of an ESPN+ subscription isn't always a gimme for everyone).

Still, what makes this fight so interesting, and the early prelims more fun to watch, is that it's clear to see paths for both fighters to top cards once again. Certainly more for Figueiredo, who is moving up to bantamweight, than Garbrandt, who has been trying to recapture the contention he had a few years ago and now has another setback.

The current champions defending their belts are Alex Pereira at light heavyweight and Zhang Weili at strawweight. But here are the other 10 fighters who have held UFC belts on this card:

Deiveson Figueiredo: After spending six years as a champion force in the flyweight division, Figueiredo moved up to bantamweight and won his first fight at 135 pounds by defeating Rob Font. Figueiredo will open the early prelims in the first fight of the night.

Cody Garbrandt: Garbrandt, Figueiredo’s opponent, is over seven years removed from his upset win over Dominik Cruz for the bantamweight title at UFC 207. He proceeded to lose five of his next six fights, but a return to bantamweight in 2023 sparked a resurgence for “No Love,” who has won his last two fights.

Jessica Andrade: Andrade has been remarkably active since joining the UFC in 2015, fighting 26 times in that span, including five times in 2023. She defeated Rose Namajunas for the strawweight title at UFC 237, but is 5-6 since. Andrade is coming off a win over Mackenzie Dern at UFC 295.

Holly Holm: Holm was immortalized in MMA canon when she stunned the world by knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. She hasn’t been able to reclaim gold in the nine years since, be remains ever popular, having headlined seven UFC events.

Aljamain Sterling: Sterling spent more than two years as bantamweight champion and is moving up to featherweight after losing his title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292. Sterling’s three bantamweight title defenses were the most in UFC history for the division, and he’ll make his UFC featherweight debut versus Calvin Kattar.

Jiri Prochazka: Prochazka will star in the final fight of the prelims, battling Aleksandar Rakic. Prochazka won the light heavyweight title at UFC 275 with a thrilling fifth-round submission over Glover Teixeira but was forced to vacate the belt due to a shoulder injury. He lost to Pereira in his first fight back at UFC 295, but could be just one win away from another title shot.

Charles Oliveira: Nobody in UFC history has racked up more post-fight bonuses than Oliveira, who became a fan favorite en route to winning the lightweight title at UFC 262 in his 40th career fight. He defended the title against Dustin Poirier, then was stripped due to missing weight against Justin Gaethje, who he went on to defeat. Oliveira then fell to Islam Makhachev for the vacant strap, but a win Saturday versus Arman Tsarukyan would give him a shot at avenging that title loss.

Justin Gaethje: Although he’s currently rocking the BMF belt, Gaethje wants another crack at the lightweight title. He won the division’s interim title at UFC 249 by ending Tony Ferguson’s 12-fight winning streak, but then lost the unification bout to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254.

Max Holloway: Holloway reigned over the featherweight division for 925 days and defended the strap three times. During that reign, he lost a shot at a second title when he moved up to lightweight but fell to Poirier. He then made one more featherweight title defense before dropping the belt to Volkanovski and before losing two more title fights against him.

Jamahal Hill: Hill was thrust into a title fight for the vacant light heavyweight belt at UFC 283, where he landed 232 significant strikes and dominated Texeira to win via unanimous decision. He has a 12-1 career record as he returns from the Achilles rupture.

Max Holloway is only 32, but has been fighting in the UFC for 12 years. And because of some of his setbacks, especially at 145 pounds where he has been unable to get past Alexander Volkanovski, questions have risen naturally about whether he should keep going.

But Holloway insists he won’t think about a shift until he believes he can’t contend.

“We’ll see what happens. I don’t want to put a number on it because if I put a number on it, people might hold me to it,” he told The Athletic. “At the end of the day, I’ll just keep going until I can not compete at the highest level.”

One way his approach has shifted is in sparring: he’s doing less of it now than he did earlier in this career, he said.

“A lot of people were thinking I was lying about sparring because I wasn’t sparring for camps. I just didn’t feel like I needed it,” he said. “These NFL guys, you can take for example, offseason camping I’m sure they’re doing hitting and stuff, but then when they’re prepping for games week by week they can’t be doing hitting the whole week because they have to play again on Saturday or Sunday. So at the end of the day, that’s just the way we’ve been approaching it, by being smart and so we’ll continue to be smart.”

“You’ve gotta be with the times. A lot of people are super old school with their training and think they have to spar every day,” he said, adding: “Now it’s like I spar outside of camp or spar here and there, but it’s not crazy. You’ve gotta be smart, you’ve gotta evolve. MMA is a very young sport and so you’ve got to evolve with it or else you’ll be left behind. I don’t want to be left behind.”

Dana White scored plenty of points among fighters and fans when he pledged this week to increase the bonus possibilities for great knockouts and great fights to $300,000 from the usual $50,000 per award.

White made the promise during a news conference. "Done," he replied when asked about raising the bonuses. There were cheers and plenty of laudatory tweets by fighters, including Conor McGregor, who is working his way back from a leg injury.

"Life changing money for many on the card," McGregor said.

The timing of the increase is curious because UFC 300 is not just a milestone card, it's the first pay-per-view since UFC's parent company, Endeavor, announced that it had settled two class-action lawsuits related to fighter pay. UFC is expected to pay the fighters $335 million to settle the lawsuits, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The fighters who filed the lawsuit said they expected to say more about the settlement once the details are worked out with the court, which could take up to two months.

With so many great fights on the card, it’s easy to overlook one of the best matchups on the undercard: the devastating striker Jalin Turner squaring off against a dynamite submission grappler in Renato Moicano.

Turner is an intriguing prospect in the lightweight division, and although he’s stumbled a couple of times recently, there’s no doubt that his threat on the feet is enough to make him a future contender.

Turner has super long limbs and he’s willing to throw strikes at a pretty high rate, landing 6.02 significant strikes per minute, while absorbing only 4.63 per minute. He’s earned seven wins in the UFC, and all of them have come in Round 1 or Round 2.

Most recently, he knocked Bobby Green out cold in the first round, which was a super impressive result, and he’ll have potential to duplicate that against Moicano.

Moicano first made his run in the featherweight division, before the weight cut became too much and he was forced up to lightweight. In that run, he had dominant wins against Kattar, Cub Swanson and Jeremy Stephens. However, he was hurt badly on several occasions.

Even after moving up a division, Moicano has still run into chin troubles. He was knocked out in Round 1 by Rafael Fiziev and Rafael Dos Anjos hurt him multiple times as well. That durability is always going to be a question mark.

However, Moicano is very well-rounded. His best skill set is his submission grappling, where he’s able to take the back of opponents and hunt for the rear-naked choke. He’s actually earned six wins by rear-naked choke in his 10 UFC victories.

Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway are two of the most exciting fighters in the history of the UFC, and the expectation is that they are going to war once that octagon door closes.

Gaethje is known for fighting at an absurd striking pace, taking far too much damage, but fighting through it and breaking his opponents. Holloway is the best volume striker of our generation, and he’s put up other-worldly numbers that probably won't be broken anytime soon.

Gaethje is the true lightweight though, and he’s been fighting at 155 pounds for his entire UFC career. Holloway is a traditional 145-pound fighter, and has only moved up to lightweight once before, when he lost to Dustin Poirier in 2019.

Because of that, and because Gaethje is a devastating striker with clear damaging potential, he’s a significant favorite this weekend. But don't count out Holloway, given his elite metrics and durability, both of which give him a path to victory.

Holloway lands 7.17 significant strikes per minute, while absorbing 4.75 per minute with a 59 percent defensive rate. He somehow was credited with 445 significant strikes in a win over Calvin Kattar in 2021 which is absurdly high. His volume upside is basically unmatched.

Furthermore, Holloway has never been knocked out, let alone knocked down in his UFC career, which spans 29 fights.

Jamahal Hill was previously the light heavyweight champion, and he never actually lost his title in the octagon. He was only forced to relinquish it after he suffered a torn Achilles tendon last July. After intensive rehab, he’s back and ready to prove he’s the rightful champion.

Alex Pereira, of course, made waves in the middleweight division with his knockout over Israel Adesanya in 2022, which earned him his first championship in only his fourth UFC bout. The rematch ended with Pereira lying unconscious on the mat and it prompted his inevitable move up to light heavyweight. There, he defeated Jan Błachowicz to earn a shot at the belt, and he put away Jiri Prochazka in November to claim his second UFC championship.

Pereira is a very dangerous striker and anytime he’s given the ability to stand and trade, he’ll be a major threat. He’s deeply experienced, technical and powerful, which is a unique combination in the upper weight classes.

Meanwhile, Hill has never even attempted a takedown, so the presumption is that these two fighters are going to stay on the feet. Hill doesn’t have the same technical pedigree as Pereira, but he does have some tools that may give Pereira trouble.

Most notably, Hill is willing to throw lots of volume, and he’s coming off a win in which he landed a whopping 232 significant strikes. His boxing may not be technically superb, but it’s decent, and his cardio, volume and durability have all been strong attributes to his game.

Alex Pereira has long displayed elements of his roots with the Reserva Pataxó Porto do Boi as part of his UFC appearances, and entered the ceremonial weigh-in tonight with face paint and an ornate headdress.

Pereira, who was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and uses the nickname "Poatan" because it is an indigenous name, visited the Pataxó tribe last year with his light heavyweight belt.

Speaking in Portuguese during the weigh-in, he called the chance to fight Jamahal Hill during the headline bout "a huge opportunity."

Hill was emotional during his appearance, saying amid boos from the crowd that he relished a chance to come back after having to relinquish his belt because of injury. "I’m coming to leave it all in there. I’m just glad to be back," he said.

There's enough on the line for Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan in the octagon in their championship fight at 115 pounds that they needn't worry about answering questions directly in English.

But the Chinese fighters used the important platform of their ceremonial weigh-ins to appeal directly to the largely English speaking crowd in Las Vegas, forgoing the interpreters by their sides as they briefly answered questions from the commentator Joe Rogan.

“Do my best,” Zhang said when asked what she needs to accomplish on Saturday. She added a nod to announcer Bruce Buffer's line for champions who keep their belt: "Tomorrow: 'And still.'"

Yan similarly welcomed the crowd: “Hello everyone, I am so excited.”

Weight cuts are one of the most brutal realities of mixed martial arts, and few fighters might be feeling that on this UFC card as much as Kayla Harrison.

Harrison is making her UFC debut after fighting for years at 155 pounds in the PFL. Before joining mixed martial arts, she was an Olympic judoka who won gold medals in 2012 and 2016 while fighting at about 170 pounds.

But the UFC's heaviest weight class for women while still deep enough to offer consistent competition has been 135 pounds. And Harrison weighed in at 136 on Friday.

That much of a cut can be brutal on a fighter's body, depending on how he or she loses the weight and cuts the final pounds at the end, with the intention of rehydrating closer to the fight.

That's why it's no small thing to see her smiling big for fans during the ceremonial weigh-ins after looking much less happy this morning.

We'll see how she handles the effects of her training against Holly Holm on Saturday night.

The ceremonial weigh-ins are beginning now from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. At the real weigh-ins earlier Friday, all the competitors made weight, meaning that all 13 bouts on the card are official.

That makes the ceremony much more about the fun and the pomp and circumstance, with the UFC 300 fighters pumping up the crowd.

We'll be following along to see if the fighters say anything notable.