UFC 300: Max Holloway's incredible KO shocked the MMA world

Max Holloway was already a UFC legend. He reached another level of greatness with his UFC 300, and every fighter watching knew it.

With just seconds left in a clinical performance against Justin Gaethje for the ceremonial “BMF” title, Holloway did something he probably shouldn't have done. He pointed to the center of the Octagon and invited Gaethje to do a full “Rock 'Em Sock' Em Robots” for his final 10 seconds.

Both men landed blows, but in the final moments Holloway landed a hard right that sent Gaethje down cold.

You could practically feel the adrenaline coursing through Holloway's body as he spent the next few seconds letting out a primal scream.

I need to state this really clearly. Holloway had no reason to do that. He outscored Gaethje 181-103 over five rounds, including potentially breaking the veteran lightweight's nose with a spinning backheel at the end of the first round. It was later revealed that Holloway was actually 3-1 on the two judges' scorecards going into the fifth and final round.

A rational fighter in that position would have made the last move to prevent Gaethje, one of the sport's most popular knockout artists, from landing the blow he needed to wrest victory from certain defeat. I would give it my all for 10 seconds.

Holloway didn't care, or perhaps realized it would take something special to earn him the coveted $300,000 nightly fight bonus from the UFC's coveted card. He ultimately asked for $600,000 for his moment in UFC history.

He also challenged current UFC featherweight champion Ilya Topria, who was in the crowd, to give him a shot at his old belt, but seemed just as upset as the rest of the crowd reacting to the final blow. .

The atmosphere was noticeably subdued for the next bout, a co-main event between women's strawweight champion Zhang Weili and challenger Yang Xiaonan. It took a few minutes for almost everyone there to calm down.

As for the rest of the UFC's roster, well, they were impressed. And I was shocked. And reflexive. Mixed martial arts exists in moments like Saturday, and that atmosphere can definitely be seen on social media.

The following tweet contains explicit language.