Max Holloway’s Systematic Dismantling of Gaethje - Perfect Stylistic Matchup?

[Gabe]

No one has ever faced Gaethje and come out with such little damage. There was no size discrepancy at all. Max took the shots that were predicted to KO him relatively easily. Never really got out in too much danger aside from some hard leg kicks and a brief first round knockdown. Was Justin Gaethje the perfect stylistic opponent for Max? Or can Max do that to most fighters at 155? This clinical performance by Holloway leaves me with more questions than answers.

 

[Gamer2k4]

Saying it was a perfect stylistic matchup takes away from the accomplishment. Max had a great night, and Justin wasn't helped by the eye pokes and the early nose damage.

 

[Rapa]

First of all knockdown was in round 4.
Casuals were saying justin would K.O max easly while it was clear max is waay better striker and would beat shit out of justin. 80% of mma fans are people who cant even understand fighting. same people who said justin would easly beat max now says max easly beats topuria.
You could show them any striking exchange and they will not be able to tell what happend

 

[FriskyRandy]

First of all knockdown was in round 4.
Casuals were saying justin would K.O max easly while it was clear max is waay better striker and would beat shit out of justin. 80% of mma fans are people who cant even understand fighting. same people who said justin would easly beat max now says max easly beats topuria.
You could show them any striking exchange and they will not be able to tell what happend

Easy to say with hindsight.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

We've come a long way from this being the first death in the octagon to a perfect stylistic match for the guy who was supposed to die

 

[filthybliss]

They both are strikers and max just happened to be the better one. How does that model a stylistic matchup. Neither went for many takedowns if I recall correctly either.

 

[Jackonfire]

Easy to say with hindsight.

 

[FriskyRandy]

Close, the other guy also posted Max by TKO in round 2 or 3.
He's also posted 500 times sucking on Topurias balls.

Max is such an awesome dude, glad he got such a great moment.

 

[The Bloody Nine]

Most of you thought it was a horrendous mismatch and shouldn't have been allowed.

 

[Luthien]

Easy to say with hindsight.

I was called all manner of insults the week leading up to the fight for correctly saying that Max would win by KO
Sherdog never change

 

[nostradumbass]

What's perfect about the stylistic matchup? It actually should have been a bad stylistic matchup because Max really isn't very good at checking leg kicks and Gaethje is one of the hardest leg kickers in the UFC. All the predictions on here were that Max would take "career changing damage".

 

[Striker Fox]

We've come a long way from this being the first death in the octagon to a perfect stylistic match for the guy who was supposed to die

That was me lol. I thought Max wasn't going to be able to take the leg kicks, then get beaten up badly with the combo of Max's elite chin and Gaethje's elite power for LW.

Glad Max made it out without taking much damage and with his stock higher than ever.

 

[shortlefthook]

The damage to justins nose is the biggest factor imo. Seems like he never got into a groove afterwards.
And also without sounding like a hater justins boxing looked terrible i mean downright terrible, non existent jab lots of telegraphed punches i mean he looked like a novice compared to max.
I realize justin is a brawler but ive seen him more technical in the past i have to believe the nose damage is the cause

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Literally no one thought this was an easy fight for Max. Most we’re expecting him to finally get stopped with strikes.

 

[JoeRowe]

"Max is too small. Look at what Poirier did to him & then look at what Gaethje just did to Poirier. I fear for Max as he has a similar wing-tattoo on his back to that of Tony, so that means he will get tko'd & never be the same."

-90% of Sherdorks

 

[legcramp]

I thought he would make Justin look like Homer Simpson of mma again but did not realize he would shadow realm him though.

 

[Shay Brennan]

Max's style depends a lot on his GOAT chin.
Hopefully that chin is intact heading into the Topuria fight.
I wanna see Max drown Topuria with volume in later rounds.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

I think people are really trying to over analyze this fight. From a technical standpoint it wasn’t amazing. It was two blood and guts fighters brawling for large portions of the fight where one guy was clearly outclassed for 90% of the fight.

With a dominant performance like that it’s easy to say one guy looked technically amazing, especially against Gatheje who is defensively lacking. Not to take anything away from that spectacular fight…but people are really reaching here to make it seem way more than it was.

 

[fortheo]

I was called all manner of insults the week leading up to the fight for correctly saying that Max would win by KO
Sherdog never change

 

[laleggenda27]

I said from the very beginning that Max would give Gaethje problems because of his boxing.

People extrapolated too much from the Max-Dustin fight. Max struggled with Dustin's power because Dustin is slick enough with his hands to actually find Max's chin. But while Gaethje has a significant power advantage over Max, he doesn't have the boxing to take advantage of it against someone like Max. I did think Gaethje's leg kicks could be a problem for Max, but that didn't really manifest.

Max would have a significant striking advantage over any top LW, with the exception of Dustin. But that's not really the question. The question is whether Max would be able to stop the wrestling of guys like Islam, Arman, and Gamrot.