Justin
Gaethje would ideally like to replicate his performance against
Tony
Ferguson in his upcoming clash against Max
Holloway, ideally minus the ruthless beatdown.
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Gaethje is slated to put his BMF title on the line against Holloway
at UFC
300 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. Gaethje
looks to be technical instead of letting his emotions steer the
wheel, a vital lesson he learned in his failed title bid against
Charles
Oliveira in 2022. Ideally, “The Highlight” would like to put on
a dominant performance like he did against Ferguson but hopes
Holloway goes down before “El Cucuy” did.
“The only time it gets dirty is when I get caught up emotional. I
think Oliveira, that was the last fight that I really needed to
learn that lesson, and I learned that lesson and I’m not gonna go
back to being that fighter. You know, if I dream of a perfect
scenario, it’s very Tony
Ferguson-esque, I think with the intentions of not hitting him
as much. I hope he goes to sleep before Tony did,” Gaethje said in
an interview with ESPN
However, if the fight does play out like the Ferguson fight,
Gaethje can see Holloway putting on a similar display of grit. And
at the end of the day, Gaethje doesn’t mind putting on as much
punishment as he needs to, knowing that his opponent would do the
same to him if given the choice.
“Something about Tony, you know, wouldn’t allow him to go to sleep,
and I think it was his fighting spirit and unfortunately if I do
find success there, I think Max has that same fighting spirit. You
know, I will have to do a lot of damage and it’s what I love to do.
I know it’s me or them. I know people think you would feel bad but
if they could press a button, change places with me after they’re
all f—-d up, then they would do that,” the 35-year-old said. “And
I’m not gonna take care of them when I’m in there. They signed the
contract, I see it as a game, as a sport and I’m very competitive.
So, I’m going in there to win, and the way for me to win is create
damage, create car crashes.”
Gaethje put on a lopsided beating on Ferguson on the way to a Round
5 technical knockout victory, to secure the interim lightweight
title at UFC
249Khabib Nurmagomedov had correctly predicted, Ferguson was
never the same again, dropping six straight outings since. Gaethje
doesn’t feel remorseful about the beating he put on Ferguson, which
he believes took away “El Cucuy’s” confidence.
“No [remorse],” Gaethje said. “No, because again, if he could
change places with me, he would do that in a heartbeat. It’s my
job. It’s what I do. Luckily I was successful that night. Not my
problem. But I don’t think it’s the fact that I took his skills
away, I think I took his confidence away and I think confidence is
the biggest factor when you’re in there. That’s why I think Sean
O’Malley is performing so well, because he’s so confident. And it’s
not fake, it’s real confidence because of the outcomes. And I think
his [Ferguson’s] confidence is not there after that outcome.”