Justin Gaethje has never been undisputed UFC champion, but he’s fought for the belt several times, and he’s remained among the best lightweights in the world ever since first arriving in the promotion. But despite everything Gaethje has accomplished, Ilia Topuria has consistently predicted that their main event fight at the UFC White House card won’t last two minutes, and he plans on delivering a devastating knockout in the opening round.
While Gaethje has certainly heard similar remarks from past opponents, he’s not sure why Topuria is so adamant that he’s just going to set foot in the octagon and lay waste to somebody who’s only been finished in the first round one time during his entire career. Add to that, many of Gaethje’s past opponents often highlight that even in victory, it’s like going through a car crash spending any time in the cage with him.
“He’s been wrong about me so many times,” Gaethje said about Topuria during UFC White House media day. “When he heard I was going to fight Paddy Pimblett, he said I had zero chance. I definitely won that fight.
“I’m not sure what he thinks or why he thinks the way he thinks. But this is a crazy sport. He could definitely knock me out in the first two minutes. It wouldn’t be because he’s that much better than me. It’s because this sport is so f*cking crazy and anything can happen.”
If one thing is certain, Gaethje knows that he would never underestimate any opponent the way he believes Topuria just be looking past him in this fight.
Maybe it’s just confidence but Gaethje recognizes that every time Topuria makes these wild claims about finishing him in such jaw-dropping fashion that he’s setting expectations to actually deliver in the fight. But what happens if things aren’t going Topuria’s way come Sunday night?
“He’s backed himself into a corner,” Gaethje said. “Because when we go to a second round, how’s he going to justify that to himself? We go to the third round and he’s bleeding, how’s he going to justify that to himself when it should have been over already in his mind?
“I don’t go in there with expectations. I expect a 25-minute war and I expect to have to dig deep to overcome a lot of adversity and I’m ready to do that.”
Gaethje says with the way that Topuria has been talking so much, he has to deliver on his promises or there’s going to be disappointment with his performance.
“I think the way that he’s talked about me and the way that he’s diminished my abilities, really puts him into a corner where he has to have a spectacular performance or else,” Gaethje said. “Even if he wins and has a tough fight, he’s going to have a tough fight against a guy he says does not belong in the cage with him.”
“That puts a lot of pressure on yourself to have to finish me or he’s going to finish me in the first two minutes he says.”
