“Looks Just as Confused” – Justin Gaethje Receives Untoward Backlash From Fans After UFC 300 Max Holloway KO

The BMF title fight between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway at UFC 300 ended up as one of the most exhilarating fights in the history of MMA. Despite Max Holloway getting the win with a last-second KO in the 5th round, both fighters won the hearts of fight fans all across the world. Nevertheless, given how Gaethje was the favorite going into the bout, fight fans, like always, are trying to reason as to why the former UFC interim lightweight champion lost, that too in the fashion that he did, in the recent PPV event.

A few hours after the fight, Sophia Romano, Justin Gaethje’s girlfriend, posted a picture on her Instagram account of the pair after Gaethje’s war. This became a target for Gaethje fans to vent their frustrations on, some of them even blaming Romano for Gaethje’s loss.

In the post that Sophia posted on her Instagram account, she had a caption that went, “All is good”. The caption must’ve been a message of encouragement for Gaethje, but now it appears to have been interpreted negatively by the fight fans.

Gaethje lost the upper hand in the fight at the end of the very first round. A perfectly placed spinning backkick landed flush on his nose, and his nose was a faucet for the rest of the fight. Holloway put on a striking clinic for the most part, daringly exchanging with the hardest hitter in the lightweight division.

Notably, “The Highlight’s” parents were also in attendance at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. During the closing moments of the match as Holloway KO’d Gaethje, his mother and father were shocked at the outcome and their reaction was captured by Sean O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, who was recording his reaction to the fight.

Fans did not get to see too many of Gaethje’s patented leg kicks during the contest. In fact, Holloway was the one leading on strikes to the legs at the end of the night. Given this performance and the brutal knockout at the end, fans had a field day speculating the reasons behind his loss.

Fight world worried over ‘confused’ Justin Gaethje after KO loss at UFC 300

A repost of the image on Reddit with the caption, “Looks like Justin is doing pretty good after his loss,” sparked quite a lot of traction, with some of the fans pointing their fingers at Justin Gaethje’s girlfriend. Here are some of the comments from the repost from Reddit.

One fan commented on the post on Reddit, blaming Gaethje’s girlfriend as the reason for his loss: “I blame her for the loss when we had virgin Gaethje he was unstoppable.” In fact, this was one of the many comments along this line where fans seemed to be hinting at not doing semen retention (said to have been practiced by greats like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson ahead of their fights) as the reason for his loss. This one was clearly just meant to pull the UFC star’s leg.

Another had a sarcastic remark, playing out Gaethje’s possible concussion: “Just a little cte no big deal, won’t show for another 10-15 years.” This comment throws light on the realities of the BMF bout from UFC 300. Gaethje did not just suffer a KO, he was taking a beating in the lead-up to that finale. According to the official UFC stats, Holloway landed 62 significant strikes each to Gaethje’s head and body, and another 57 to his legs. As for the overall stats, Gaethje landed 103 significant strikes while taking a staggering 181 from Holloway.

Prior to the fight, Gaethje was the clear favorite. There were all sorts of questions about Holloway’s punching power and his chin holding up at lightweight. Reflecting on this, a fan showed his concern for Justin Gaethje: “Everyone was so worried about max we all forgot to worry about Justin!”

Meanwhile, a second fan blamed Gaethje’s loss on having a girlfriend, quoting something he said before: “That’s the reason he lost. He has always said that women are a distraction.”

There were a few more comments that suggested that the former BMF champ still looked concussed and not well, contrary to Sophia’s post. One fan said, “Don’t look like he is fully there yet” while another wrote, “Bro looks concussed and light-sensitive even in a poor photo lol.” A third comment along similar lines read, “Buddy looks just as confused as when he walked up to not get his hand raised lmao.”

After watching the aftermath of the BMF fight, it would have been hard to believe that this was the same man who knocked out Dustin Poirier in July last year to win the belt. Do you believe that Justin Gaethje can bounce back and redeem himself soon enough? Or has this fight taken a piece of him that we will never see again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.