Although he is actually a great wrestler (NCAA Division I), UFC interim champion Justin Gaethje prefers to fight on his feet.
Gaethje is currently on a four-win streak and is the next challenger for the undefeated lightweight champion – Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The 31-year-old American has recorded 22 wins and just two defeats during his impressive career, and some of his fans wondered, after the matches in which he was defeated by Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier, “Where was his wrestling?”
Justin’s matches are always action-packed and attractive, so even his biggest fans didn’t resent him too much for the aforementioned defeats. But still, there are those who wonder when Gaethje will finally start to combine striking techniques more seriously with his play on the ground?
On one occasion, talking to Brendan Schaub in the Below the Belt podcast, Justin gave an answer in which he explains that wrestling simply takes away too much of his energy. As you may know, and we even wrote about it how wrestling is an extremely tough sport, Gaethje’s statement has some meaning.
“I’m always against it because I’m getting exhausted. After seven minutes of fighting, I would almost always barely walk. The way I wrestle and do all the other things is not the way to conserve energy,” Gaethje explained at the time.
Although this is one of their conversations from last year, it has flooded social networks again these days after many fans slowly began to analyze and predict Justin’s clash with Khabib. And it was this duel that could show us how good his wrestling really is and whether he can stop the dominant Dagestani with it.
What do you think?