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BMF Champion Justin Gaethje is defending the gold against former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway at UFC 300.
The defending champion believes that he accidentally talked the upcoming fight with Holloway into existence.
“I kind of talked this into existence on accident,” Gaethje told Kevin Iole (transcript via Matthew Wells of MMA Junkie). “I said, ‘I didn’t want to punch Max Holloway, but he’s also a guy that could fight for a BMF belt.’ That turns out into going to be having to punch Max Holloway. It’s the name of the game, and I am the best in the world at creating damage. The last two fights, I have been very tactical and very, very, very methodical in my approach. I think that obviously I’m going to continue to do that, and if I can do that, then it’s going to be very hard for Max to overwhelm me and put me in positions where I shouldn’t be.”
Gaethje, who is the second ever BMF Champion, will become the first fighter to actually defend the title.
One thing Gaethje admits is that fighting Holloway was the second of the two best options he had for his next UFC fight.
“I was under the impression that if not for sure a title eliminator, that the fight with Dustin Poirier was as much a title eliminator as this Tsarukyan and Oliveira fight is. Now, me fighting on the same card as those guys, I’m going to be obviously above them, all four of us – you know, me, Max, Tsaruykan, Oliveira, we all got a chance to stand out. I think it’s a great opportunity. I think it’s second-best obviously if they lined me up with Makhachev – that’s the best-case scenario. Second best scenario is I get to fight for it, and that’s the scenario I’m in. I get to go in there, I get to stand out. There’s going to be two contenders coming out that night. So, we’ll see what happens after that," said Gaethje.
