Justin Gaethje ruins his beat Ilia Topuria, and it comes down to two things: movement and errors in preparation.
Gaethje shocked the world at UFC Freedom 250 by battering Topuria so badly over four rounds that Ilia’s corner stopped the fight before the start of the fifth. Both Topuria’s orbitals were broken and he limped out of the cage a changed man.
Justin has talked about how he ships “direct power lines” through punches right into the face of his opponents, which is why he is able to hurt them so badly, while they never seem to even bruise him. Now, in a new interview with Demetrious Johnson, he explained what Topuria did wrong that he and his coaches took advantage of.
“I think the best explanation for you is that his legs never change the rhythm,” Gaethje said. “He never changes the rhythm with his legs. It’s forward or backward. So ultimately it’s about timing and breaking the legs. The game plan was to break the legs, especially if it’s so constant that it’s very easy to predict. And I’ve never seen him change from that and go sideways and not go (in, out) front or back.”
“Everybody always runs away from their right hand,” Gaethje continued. “But at the end of the day, it puts you in his power. He’s very sharp, so the more you move here, the more he’s ready to drive and run like that at any moment. . . . So I really tried to get him to the right hand and be methodical about controlling the space. Obviously, he throws that right hand, but he never changes his shots. He doesn’t.”
Gaethje was able to deflect Topuria’s right hand bomb by simply raising his left hand to block, though he admitted the second and third follow-up kicks were still dangerous, as were the body shots Topuria landed. he almost did. In the end, though, he survived because of his mentality… a mentality that he thought Topuria didn’t have.
“He made some terrible mistakes emotionally when it came to understanding what we were doing here, and he paid the price,” Gaethje said. “I mean 12 weeks before the fight. Those emotional mistakes in preparation. So he wasn’t prepared for what happened that night. And it’s his fault because he didn’t think anyone could be with him for that long.”
“He forgot who he was and how dangerous the game is.”