UFC 274 : This weekend, Justin Gaethje is aiming for perfection.
UFC 274 : Gaethje will fight lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the 155-pound title this weekend in the main event of UFC 274, and he comes into the fight having angered the champion.
UFC 274 : Oliveira has retaliated against Gaethje for dubbing him a “quitter,” and while Gaethje acknowledges that Oliveira has showed a lot of heart in recent battles, “The Highlight” aims to bring that out in his opponent at the end of the day.
“I wasn’t being overly critical, I wasn’t saying he was a bad champion, I was saying that in the times that he’s lost, he didn’t even get knocked out, he quit sometimes,” Gaethje told ESPN. “The choice to quit is something one makes, and once you make it, you can make it again, because you know that it’s there. I don’t believe I’ve ever made that choice. Some people haven’t and I believe some people have… I believe that he has, and that’s all I was saying. I believe, deep down, he knows his way out, and that’s to quit whenever he gets hit too many times too hard.
“All those assessments were of a younger man. He’s [32] years old, he’s a man now, with confidence. A man with confidence is a dangerous man and he’s not the same man that I was referencing. But, again, deep down, once it happened once it will happen again, and I’m the perfect guy to show it to him. And I will show it to him May 7. I’ve got to stay out of grappling positions, obviously, but I’m going to put a hole right in his face and it’s going to be glorious.”
Gaethje will make his second shot at securing an undisputed title at UFC 274 after winning an interim belt over Tony Ferguson in 2020, but failing to unify belts against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254. If he loses, a third title chance in the loaded lightweight category is far from certain, therefore Gaethje plans to put on a faultless performance to ensure that he gets the job done this time.
“I’m going to be perfect, and I’m going to be perfect for 25 minutes,” Gaethje said. “If he can beat me, then kudos to him, but he’s going to have to walk through hell, like Khabib did. But he’s not as powerful, he doesn’t have the structure, he doesn’t have the frame, and he doesn’t have explosive takedowns. He’s going to have to find me making a mistake, overreaching, and try to get into a grappling situation. Outside that, he better be praying every day that he gets me to the ground, because if not, it’s gonna be the same night as [Michael] Chandler, except five rounds. And if I went five rounds with Chandler, he would have died, and that’s the truth. So I’m glad we didn’t go five rounds.”
Gaethje has some experience with walking through hell. In the last five years, “The Highlight” has earned MMA Fighting’s Fight of the Year award three times, for fights against Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier, and, most recently, Michael Chandler.
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