UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill (04/13/2024) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)

[Elsalvajeloco]

UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill 
April 13, 2024
Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Alex Pereira © (205) vs. Jamahal Hill (205) (first defense) - Pereira, KO (punches), R1 (3:14)
UFC Women's Strawweight Championship: Weili Zhang © (115) vs. Xiaonan Yan (115) (second defense) - Zhang, DEC (unanimous)
Justin Gaethje (156) vs. Max Holloway (156) - Holloway, KO (punch), R5 (4:59)
Charles Oliveira (156) vs. Arman Tsarukyan (156) - Tsarukyan, DEC (split)
Bo Nickal (186) vs Cody Brundage (186) - Nickal, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (3:38)

ESPN / ESPN+ Preliminary Card:
Jiří Procházka (206) vs. Aleksandar Rakić (206) - Procházka, TKO (strikes), R2 (3:17)
Calvin Kattar (145.5) vs. Aljamain Sterling (146) - Sterling, DEC (unanimous)  
Holly Holm (136) vs. Kayla Harrison (136) - Harrison, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (1:47)
Sodiq Yusuff (146) vs. Diego Lopes (146) - Lopes, TKO (punches), R1 (1:29)
    
ESPN / Fight Pass Early Preliminary Card:
Jalil Turner (155.5) vs. Renato Carneiro (156) - Carneiro, TKO (punches), R2 (4:11)
Jéssica Andrade (116) vs. Marina Rodriguez (115) - Andrade, DEC (unanimous)
Bobby Green (156) vs. Jim Miller (155.5) - Green, DEC (unanimous)
Deiveson Alcântara (135.5) vs. Cody Garbrandt (136) - Alcântara, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (4:02)

Event Bonuses ($300,000)
Performance of the Night: Max Holloway
Performance of the Night: Alex Pereira
Fight of the Night: Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway

Attendance: 20,867
Gate: $16.5 million

[Elsalvajeloco]

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

[Elsalvajeloco]

[The Natural]

UFC 100 from 11th July 2009 was and still is one of the best MMA shows ever. Georges St-Pierre dominated Thiago Alves and Dan Henderson with one of the sickest KTFO to Michael Bisping you'll ever see.

UFC 200 from 9th July 2016 has last minute card changes as Jon Jones was supposed to fight Daniel Cormier in the main event but failed a test. DC fought Anderson Silva. Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes, the co-main event originally went on last.

UFC 300, 13th April 2024. Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway is the fight I'm most looking forward to by far with trepidation I'll expand on in the next post. Jim Miller is the only fighter to fight at all three shows. Someone is getting KO'd in Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo. Fancy it to be Cody, four out of his five losses by KO/TKO. Be interesting to see how Kayla Harrison does in her UFC debut. Originally I think this was a TNT Sports Box Office offering and now it's not. Good.

Edited April 13 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway are two of my favourite fighters. Ever since the fight was announced for UFC 300, I've been concerned for Holloway. Holloway is moving up to Lightweight to fight Gaethje who is one of if not the heaviest Lightweight hitter ever. 20 of his 25 wins by KO/TKO. This will be Max's 33rd MMA fight and he's never lost by KO/TKO. This might be the one. I still remember and feel uncomfortable watching Gaethje vs. Tony Ferguson. Even Dana White felt that way. With the benefit of hindsight with Alexander Volkanovski losing the UFC Featherweight Championship to Ilia Topuria, maybe it was better to wait and do Topuria vs. Holloway for the UFC Featherweight Championship and Islam Makhachev vs. Justin Gaethje for the UFC Lightweight Championship. I wanted to see the latter for sometime with Gaethje's power. If Blessed wins, give him the shot at Islam. I have Gaethje as the #1 contender to Makhachev right now.

[twiztor]

this is, without a doubt, the best ever top-to-bottom card the UFC has ever put on. 

looking forward to Gaethje/Holloway the most for all the reasons @The Natural laid out. Also trepidatious for those same reasons.

Figueiredo/Garbrandt should be a hell of a fun opener. i also expect Cody to be the recipient of a KO. his chin is starting to go, plus he tends to get lured into these brawls that lead to him abandoning his technique. He has all the skills necessary (or at least had them), but some of the worst Fight IQ ever when he deviates from his gameplan. I was surprised to see that Cody is not currently ranked. not that he necessarily deserves it, but the UFC seems hesitant to unrank former champs that remain active.

Holm/Harrison is probably the most intriguing for me. I haven't watched any PFL, so i haven't seen Kayla fight before. Interesting that she draws Holm as her debut, after what Holly did to the last high level judoka on the roster. But can Holly's experience score the victory over her age? And how will Kayla's first weight cut to 135 effect her? Lots of questions to be answered.

Pereira/Hill is not the main event that a vocal percentage of the fanbase wanted, but i'm here for it. the mess with the LHW title is beginning to clear itself. I'm hoping that whoever wins, Magomed Ankalaev gets the next shot. He's the last one with a (albeit tenuous) claim on the title. Pereira is very hittable, and Hill will be looking to put that to the test. But Pereira definitely hits HARD, and i'm looking forward to watching Hill test out his own chin as well.

Speaking of hittable, you know i'm rooting for Jiri, easily one of my favorite current fighters. don't see this as being anything other than a barnburner. 

Good on Jim Miller getting the spot to fight on 300. Pulling for him because of that, although if this was any other card i'd be on the Bobby Green train.

Kattar/Sterling keeps getting overlooked but i'm excited for that fight too. and Turner/Moicano. and Oliveira/Tsurukyan. this card really is phenomenal.

[The Natural]

4 hours ago, The Natural said:

UFC 100 from 11th July 2009 was and still is one of the best MMA shows ever. Georges St-Pierre dominated Thiago Alves and Dan Henderson with one of the sickest KTFO to Michael Bisping you'll ever see.

UFC 200 from 9th July 2016 has last minute card changes as Jon Jones was supposed to fight Daniel Cormier in the main event but failed a test. DC fought Anderson Silva. Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes, the co-main event originally went on last.

UFC 300, 13th April 2024. Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway is the fight I'm most looking forward to by far with trepidation I'll expand on in the next post. Jim Miller is the only fighter to fight at all three shows. Someone is getting KO'd in Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo. Fancy it to be Cody, four out of his five losses by KO/TKO. Be interesting to see how Kayla Harrison does in her UFC debut. Originally I think this was a TNT Sports Box Office offering and now it's not. Good.

 

4 hours ago, The Natural said:

Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway are two of my favourite fighters. Ever since the fight was announced for UFC 300, I've been concerned for Holloway. Holloway is moving up to Lightweight to fight Gaethje who is one of if not the heaviest Lightweight hitter ever. 20 of his 25 wins by KO/TKO. This will be Max's 33rd MMA fight and he's never lost by KO/TKO. This might be the one. I still remember and feel uncomfortable watching Gaethje vs. Tony Ferguson. Even Dana White felt that way. With the benefit of hindsight with Alexander Volkanovski losing the UFC Featherweight Championship to Ilia Topuria, maybe it was better to wait and do Topuria vs. Holloway for the UFC Featherweight Championship and Islam Makhachev vs. Justin Gaethje for the UFC Lightweight Championship. I wanted to see the latter for sometime with Gaethje's power. If Blessed wins, give him the shot at Islam. I have Gaethje as the #1 contender to Makhachev right now.

 

43 minutes ago, twiztor said:

this is, without a doubt, the best ever top-to-bottom card the UFC has ever put on. 

looking forward to Gaethje/Holloway the most for all the reasons @The Natural laid out. Also trepidatious for those same reasons.

Figueiredo/Garbrandt should be a hell of a fun opener. i also expect Cody to be the recipient of a KO. his chin is starting to go, plus he tends to get lured into these brawls that lead to him abandoning his technique. He has all the skills necessary (or at least had them), but some of the worst Fight IQ ever when he deviates from his gameplan. I was surprised to see that Cody is not currently ranked. not that he necessarily deserves it, but the UFC seems hesitant to unrank former champs that remain active.

Holm/Harrison is probably the most intriguing for me. I haven't watched any PFL, so i haven't seen Kayla fight before. Interesting that she draws Holm as her debut, after what Holly did to the last high level judoka on the roster. But can Holly's experience score the victory over her age? And how will Kayla's first weight cut to 135 effect her? Lots of questions to be answered.

Pereira/Hill is not the main event that a vocal percentage of the fanbase wanted, but i'm here for it. the mess with the LHW title is beginning to clear itself. I'm hoping that whoever wins, Magomed Ankalaev gets the next shot. He's the last one with a (albeit tenuous) claim on the title. Pereira is very hittable, and Hill will be looking to put that to the test. But Pereira definitely hits HARD, and i'm looking forward to watching Hill test out his own chin as well.

Speaking of hittable, you know i'm rooting for Jiri, easily one of my favorite current fighters. don't see this as being anything other than a barnburner. 

Good on Jim Miller getting the spot to fight on 300. Pulling for him because of that, although if this was any other card i'd be on the Bobby Green train.

Kattar/Sterling keeps getting overlooked but i'm excited for that fight too. and Turner/Moicano. and Oliveira/Tsurukyan. this card really is phenomenal.

Great minds think alike as the saying goes, my friend. We'll soon see if our predictions come to pass. I actually forgot those fights you mentioned in the last paragraph till now.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

[jaedmc]

Don't forget, Max and Justin got Dana to change the fight bonuses to $300,000.

So we might see some wild shit tonight with that much on the line.

I might actually pay for this show.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I would say if you haven't seen Kayla Harrison, I would say in certain areas, she looks like a novice especially when she's in a totally different situation than she's use to. She's fought Larissa Pacheco multiple times and in the first fight, she clearly won. It wasn't as dominant as her other fights. Then the next couple times, she looked a bit out of sorts especially the last fight where she didn't do anything and lost to Pacheco. Pacheco is much better than she showed in the UFC, but she isn't exactly doing anything that would uniquely bedevil folks. She was just more experienced than Kayla and also 15-20 pounds heavier than she was in the UFC. More importantly, in the latter fights with Harrison, she managed to figure her out and use her weight functionally against Harrison. 

Now all that said, I think Harrison is more like a Mackenzie Dern than a Ronda Rousey. She's not going to pull guard like a Dern but she isn't going to spam the same techniques as Ronda did. I think she is kinda like a Sara McMann mixed with Dern. In addition, Rousey vs. Holm was almost ten years ago now. Yeah, I think Holly's experience could be very valuable. However, she doesn't have the explosion she had years ago. There have been several moments of the last few years where she has looked every bit her age. Keep in mind, she had a long fighting career before MMA. There is a lot of wear and tear on her body. Meanwhile, I think if Harrison has been working on a lot of weaknesses at American Top Team, she can look better than she has been at the end of her PFL run. I think the made up weight class (for women) didn't help her one bit in terms of growth. It was either fight girls with just as much as experience as her OR fight someone with three times the experience. It was a no win situation or room for growth. I think this is her sink or swim moment because honestly she was meant to be in UFC from the beginning. Same with MVP. It was just a question of when. Now we're about to see if she was worth the investment.

I think you can say the same for Bo Nickal as well. There is a lot riding on his fight with Brundage. He has to deliver as well. 

[jaedmc]

I haven't watched much of any Kayla Harrison, so I feel very unqualified for any opinion on the fight. But everyone I've heard talk about her, describes someone whose fighting style is practically made for Holly Holm to beat on points over 3 rounds. 42 years of age or not. Pair that with a pretty big weight cut, and it just sounds like a terrible combination for her debut.

[Elsalvajeloco]

20 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

I haven't watched much of any Kayla Harrison, so I feel very unqualified for any opinion on the fight. But everyone I've heard talk about her, describes someone whose fighting style is practically made for Holly Holm to beat on points over 3 rounds. 42 years of age or not. Pair that with a pretty big weight cut, and it just sounds like a terrible combination for her debut.

I mean I think a lot of it depends on Harrison's adjustments and if the Mayra Bueno Silva fight was just a bad at the office for Holm. Holly looked terrible in that fight. And that one, given how Silva looked against Pennington, probably could have been Holm by decision years ago.

[Elsalvajeloco]

[Elsalvajeloco]

[Elsalvajeloco]

[twiztor]

loved the throwback intro. HYPED!

[jaedmc]

Been excited for this opener.  Could be a show stealer. All depends on which Cody shows up.

[twiztor]

Garbrandt looked good standing. fast speed and measured in selecting his shots. He even did a commendable job fighting that arm triangle. but Figgy just outclassed him on the ground. excellent work adapting and attacking those subs.

[DreamBroken]

Impressive opener. Tough loss for Cody but Figureido is always killer. Crazy having former champs/PPV headliners in the early prelim opening fight, I love it. 

[jaedmc]

All the Bantams ahead of Figgy in the rankings would be an awesome fight. I think Yan injured himself last fight, but Holy shit let's get those two together.

[DreamBroken]

Damn, hoped to see Miller keep the win streak alive of 100, 200, 300. Surprised he wasn't looking for subs but was still landing here and there till the end. Hell of a fight though. 

[jaedmc]

Bobby was always going to be too fast for him, was hoping Jim had a little magic left in them hands. Don't think he's washed though, as he still manages to beat younger, less experienced guys. We'll probably be watching him on UFC 400.