Justin Gaethje got here from a wrestling background, but he has but to shoot for a takedown within the UFC. Nevertheless, that will change at UFC 286.
Gaethje has fought 10 instances within the UFC – and can make the stroll for the eleventh time on Saturday – and has but to shoot for a takedown. Though he’s identified for his brawling fashion, that does come as a shock given he has the wrestling pedigree, however Gaethje says he hasn’t had to make use of it ever.
“I feel it’s at all times one thing that you must make them take into consideration,” Gaethje informed CBS Sports. “So I’ll ponder that. It’s at all times a threat evaluation, clearly. Up till I acquired TKOed by Eddie Alvarez, and the identical with [Dustin] Poirier, I assumed I used to be being extra profitable in that space. So I didn’t essentially discover it essential to take that take shot. In opposition to Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and [Charles] Oliveira, I didn’t need to take it to the bottom as a result of they’ve been doing jiu-jitsu their complete life and I’m a wrestler.”
Though Gaethje says he hasn’t needed to wrestle, he admits he’s likelier to wrestle Rafael Fiziev at UFC 286 than some other opponent. He mentioned within the interview it’s a few 6/10 likelihood he shoots for his first UFC takedown, which is quite a bit greater than it has been in different fights.
If Justin Gaethje does wrestle Fiziev at UFC 286, it provides one other wrinkle to the highly-anticipated struggle. But, whether or not or not ‘The Spotlight’ truly does certainly wrestle is one other query as when he will get into the Octagon, his fights typically flip right into a brawl and Battle of the 12 months contenders which he expects this scrap to be anyway.
Gaethje enters his fight as the betting underdog and is coming off a submission loss to Charles Oliveira for the light-weight title.
Do you assume Justin Gaethje will wrestle Rafael Fiziev?