There were fight cards in 2024 that were put together to be too big to fail.
And in the business of selling pay-per-views, that’s obviously a very smart thing. But how often do those shows turn into ones that were merely good for “on-paper” views, and when it came time to deliver the goods, they left a little something to be desired?
In 2024, events that were so monumental they demanded viewing in the MMA world included a historic round number, a debut in a revolutionary new building, iconic title fights and a crossover event pitting champions from one promotion against their counterparts in another.
But an iconic moment helped push one way ahead of the pack.
UFC 300 is MMA Junkie’s 2024 Event of the Year.
It was a show that was, without question, too big to fail. At T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the card was curtain-jerked by a fight between two former champions. And we’re talking recent champs, too, with Deiveson Figueiredo’s submission of Cody Garbrandt. Another ex-champ, Jessica Andrade, was on the bill just two fights later. And those were the early prelims.
Two-time PFL champ and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison finally got her chance to test herself in the UFC, and against an ex-titleholder, too – and it had to languish on the ESPN prelims instead of the main card.
The main card had two title fights, including Alex Pereira’s third headlining win of the year when he took out ex-champ Jamahal Hill. But one absolutely massive moment for Max Holloway solidified not only his spot as an MMA icon, but put UFC 300 way over the top for Event of the Year.
In a fight he was winning against Justin Gaethje, with the “BMF” title at stake, Holloway now famously pointed at the canvas to signal to his opponent they should throw for the fences for the final 10 seconds. And that they did.
Holloway landed a haymaker of a right hand with two seconds left in the fight, and Gaethje was out on the canvas with a second to go. With bonus amounts set at $300,000 in advance to mark the historic UFC 300 occasion, Holloway double-dipped with Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night for $600,000 in bonuses alone.
But his knockout took the Hawaiian former featherweight champion into living legend territory, and it made UFC 300 the kind of legendary event that lives up to its advance billing.
UFC 300 had eight finishes in 13 fights, 11 current or former UFC champions, former champs from other promotions, Olympic medalists, NCAA wrestling champions, two title fights, long-awaited promotional debuts, record-setting moments …
By comparison, UFC 306 at The Sphere was a technical marvel, but it wasn’t littered up and down with as many stars – and its results also were, while not insignificant, devoid of many finishes. And the PFL vs. Bellator crossover event early in the year lost some of its luster when it turned out that the Bellator half of the product seemed to be on the way out.
Shows like UFC 299 and UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden become also-rans when held up to UFC 300. But UFC 300 may wind up being MMA’s all-time standard-bearer, anyway, when all is said and done, and that makes the runners-up this year a nice group of moral victors.
