UFC 300 -- Inside the making of the most loaded card in MMA history - ESPN

MAX HOLLOWAY AND his coaches needed a place to work out in Denver during UFC 150 fight week. It was August 2012, and Holloway, then a 20-year-old prospect, was coming off his first UFC victory two months earlier.

Holloway and his team arrived from Hawaii and connected with coach Trevor Wittman. He invited them to use his gym, then called Grudge Training Center, in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, for training.

Everything went well at Grudge, and Holloway was primed for his fight against Justin Lawrence a few days later. But Holloway and his coaches didn't have a ride back to the hotel where the UFC was housing the athletes. A young fighter who had just arrived at the gym after wrestling for the University of Northern Colorado offered up his time and vehicle, which he was essentially living out of at the time.

It was Justin Gaethje.

The two fighters, both early in their respective careers, chatted for a while during the drive, which extended to Gaethje being almost the team's unofficial chauffeur for a few days.

«He had everything in his car, he had his dog,» Holloway told ESPN. «And he was just talking about how he wanted to make it [to the UFC]. He wanted to make it there. He's not going to stop.»

Gaethje remembers being a «big fan» of Holloway at the time, and Holloway was «such a nice dude and respectful and normal» that it helped inspire Gaethje to continue on the path he was walking.

«Every time I met a UFC fighter, I was like, 'These guys are normal, I can do this,'» Gaethje said. «And I think that the biggest obstacle to overcome whenever you're trying to achieve something is knowing that you deserve something.»

Little did they know then that the UFC was at the halfway mark leading up to one of the biggest events in the