UFC 300 will take place in Las Vegas on April 13th, 2024.  The date of this historic show is coming up fast, however the order of bouts on the card is also still unknown, so instead of strictly looking at the main card as I usually do in event previews, I will talk about the five fights announced so far that interest me the most:

[#3 LW] Justin Gaethje vs [#2 FW] Max Holloway

This is the highest-ranked men’s fight on the card so far.  Even though it’s not for a title (and don’t tell me anything about ‘BMF’), this fight could very well be the headliner – and it actually might be, but more on this later. Here we have a former featherweight champion making his second attempt at moving up a division to take on a perennial lightweight contender. The odds favorite, Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje, has rebounded from his most recent title loss to Charles Oliveira with victories over Rafael Fiziev and a spectacular second round head kick knockout over Dusting Porrier. Though he has already fought for the title twice, Justin is still very close to title contention; however he instead chose to take a superfight with Max Holloway.

Holloway has once had a long reign as the king of the featherweight division, before the ascent of Alexander Volkanovski – to whom Holloway lost thrice. He still continues to take out all the top contenders in the 145-lbs division, but as long as Volkanovski remains champion, the probability of Max getting another title shot are very low. Why not try his luck in a different weight class? This won’t be Holloway’s first foray at 155 lbs; in fact he has started his career as a lightweight, and as recently as 2019 has faced Dustin Porrier for the interim lightweight title. MMA math and the odds say that Justin should walk away victorious from this bout; indeed this will be a tough hill to climb for the outsized and outpowered Holloway, whose best chance is to out-cardio Gaethje. I’m curious to see whether Justin’s considerable power will be enough to crack Holloway’s legendary chin and it appears there is no real trend for those placing a bet online as the odds are tight.

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The MMA world is abuzz with anticipation for UFC 298, where featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski returns to defend his title in the 145-pound division. This fight, taking place on February 17, 2024, in Anaheim, California, is about defending the title and marks a significant chapter in MMA history.

Volkanovski, coming off a challenging stint against the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, Islam Makhachev, where he took on the fight on short notice in October, is set to make his sixth title defense. His opponent, Ilia Topuria, comes into this bout with an unblemished record in the UFC, winning all six of his fights and securing three consecutive performance bonuses.

This will be Topuria’s first attempt at capturing UFC gold. The stakes are high for Volkanovski, who has faced setbacks in two of his last three bouts against Makhachev in his pursuit to become a two-division champion.

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