Max Holloway has been the talk of the town since his highlight walk-off KO of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. Whilst he has garnered attention from all over the globe for the closing moments of the fight, Max had one secret weapon that turned the tides in his favor. That said, the way he discovered it will leave many people speechless.
For those unaware, Max Holloway faced Justin Gaethje in a BMF title fight at UFC 300. With him moving up to lightweight for the contest, many had their reservations about Holloway and how he would cope with Gaethje‘s pace and power. However, at the end of the second very first round, Max managed to connect with a spinning back kick which sent Gaethje backward and almost out of the cage.
Although many may not have noticed it, the kick resulted in a gruesome broken nose for Gaethje. As a result, his performance was hindered massively in subsequent rounds with Holloway further targeting his face with a barrage of jabs. Despite a mangled nose, Gaethje kept fighting before getting slumped to the floor at the end of Round 5, with one second left on the clock.
Max Holloway reveals how he learned his spinning back kick
Following the fight, all the talk was about the finishing sequence of the fight that saw Max Holloway invite Justin Gaethje to the center of the Octagon. Once there, both fighters threw down with reckless abandon with Gaethje unfortunately catching a wild overhand from Holloway, that shut his lights off.
That said, many have since caught on to the fact that the spinning back kick at the end of Round 1 was a very key strike that brought the fight in Holloway’s favor. Speaking to Joe Rogan on JRE MMA Show #155 Max revealed how he came up with the strike:
“Do you remember, me telling you, it was here, it’s a viral clip of me learning strikes in the (UFC) game, that’s one of the strikes! I saw the strikes in the game and Renan Barao threw it nice. With Dustin Kimura, I told him, ‘Brother, we need to do this spinning back kick sh*t. It’s just so good, it’s a secret weapon.
I remember Dustin Kimura, he was in the UFC for a little bit, and I was trying to make him practice it with me. I remember him saying one time like, ‘F**k this kick, this kick is stupid as hell. We kept practicing, kept practicing, another guy, a big guy came down training with us and he dropped him with the spinning back kick, from the clinch. And I was like, ‘What’d I told you brother, this f***ing kick is a secret weapon.
In the past, Max Holloway went viral after admitting that he simply copied the strikes from the UFC games. Using Renan Barao, Max would throw a variety of strikes and combinations and then, try to replicate them in training. Over the years, Holloway has utilized many strikes from the game in his fights, with the spinning back kick yielding him the most amount of success. The move is also now a part of his arsenal in the UFC 5 video game.
Max Holloway commends Justin Gaethje’s kicking power
For the most part, Max Holloway has a lot of respect for Justin Gaethje and still holds him in very high regard. Since their fight, Holloway has always brought up how devastating Gaethje’s leg kicks are. Something that the former interim title holder is known for, ‘The Highlight’ has caused a lot of damage with his kicks over the years.
Similarly, Max Holloway also had to bear the brunt of the kicks during their fight. Although he was seemingly coping well with it during the fight, Holloway reveals that he had a very difficult time afterward, tending to his injuries and bruises from the leg kicks. Otherwise unscathed, Holloway believes that Gaethje’s leg is made out of something else entirely:
Max Holloway thinks Justin Gaethje got his leg from Wakanda 😂
“This guy [Gaethje] kicks hard as sh*t. I like to say my chin is made out of vibranium, brother he has a vibranium leg.
‘He went to Wakanda too?’ I was thinking to myself. I thought I only got to go to Wakanda.”… pic.twitter.com/RbtXOdSM3Z
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 26, 2024
“Brother my left shin, it’s alright now but they hurt bro. Bro, this guy (Justin Gaethje) kick hard as sh*t. His bones, I don’t know what they’re made out of, bro I think it’s titanium. Like I like to say my chin is made out of vibranium, brother he had a vibranium leg bro. ‘He went to Wakanda too, I was thinking to myself. Like how?'”
That said, Max Holloway admitted that Justin Gaethje’s kicks have had a lasting effect on him. Interestingly, as the Hawaiian reveals, the bruises from the kick were still visible two weeks later. At the same time Holloway states that at the moment, he felt immense pain, but had to switch that part off, instead, he would take the kick and tell himself that it would hurt later on.