During a recent appearance on Submission Radio, UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten broke down how interim champ Justin Gaethje could beat lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254 on October 24.

I think he could be the guy who beats him. I truly believe so,” said Bas. “Because he’s a great wrestler, he might stop his takedowns. Listen, the best thing that happened to Gaethje was getting knocked out. Because I’ve telling him in the World Series of Fighting and PFL so many times, I said, why do you fight like this? He said, ‘Because it’s exciting, I want to be here for the fans.’ And I said, ‘dude, but you know eventually it’s going to hurt you. You want to be able to speak to your kids when you’re gonna have kids, right?’ And he said, ‘yeah, yeah, but I just love this fighting style because everybody enjoys it.’ When he got knocked out, now suddenly he started fighting like his coach Trevor Wittman really wants, and now he started letting them miss and coming back.

“The way he was with Ferguson, that was scary. I was afraid for Ferguson. When he started shaking his head, I thought, oh dude, he’s got brain damage, something is wrong here. I mean, he got hit so hard. Nobody’s been able to knock that guy out, to stop him. And then Gaethje comes and I thought, I know Gaethje is in Denver and they have the mile high and they have great stamina, but I thought Ferguson, he can keep on pushing, keep on punching. But he had no problem. So now Khabib is going to face somebody with endless stamina, a freaking heart as big as a lion. Even if he’s tired he’ll do the craziest things. He’s got great low kicks, he’s got great takedown defense. And who knows man, because he really started thinking later in his career, and that really made him shine now, maybe he’s gonna shoot for a takedown. You don’t what he’s going to do, because you never did it before.

 I think Gaethje can really do that as well, together with his low kicks. I wouldn’t do that in the beginning. Especially because that might set him up to be taken down. But now we’re going to find out if he can stop the takedowns from Khabib. And if he can, Khabib might be in trouble.

I think that if Gaethje is pushing, pushing, pushing, and when he gets tired, that’s the moment you want to start implementing the low kicks. Like, in round three or four. You know, once they start getting tired. Because Khabib’s never fought a guy like Gaethje. Think about it. This guy just comes forward the whole time, and everything is power. And he’s got endless stamina. It’s a very hard guy to fight. Now if, of course, Khabib can take him to the ground and he’s on top, we don’t know what’s going to happen there. But with his wrestling pedigree, I would say that he’s going to be able to control everything on the ground. We simply never saw him in that position yet.

With a win, Khabib says he will do one final fight and retire at 30-0. Bas wants the last fight to be a Conor McGregor rematch or a GSP fight.

I would love to see a McGregor in there who could go the full distance, four or five rounds,” said Bas. “Like, let’s say he’s been only training stamina the last six months. Because I think that’s his downfall every time when he gets tired. That’s when he starts losing. So, he really needs to brush up on his stamina, and that would be a really great fight.

“Looking at GSP, what he did, what he accomplished, the last fight against Bisping, getting the title. And then if he would do this, he would have a big chance. Because his takedown defense is just top notch. And if he could stop the takedowns from Khabib, I mean, his striking is better. I know it’s better. So that would be very interesting to see if he can win that fight as well. If he does that, that’s going to live on for the next thousand years. He put himself really on the map. I think he’s already on the map, but wrapping up like this with a win over Khabib. And especially if Khabib is gonna beat Gaethje, of course.

“But if he’s not, you know how people are, you’re only as good as your last fight. And it sucks because you got these greats like Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, all these guys who are great fighters, and they lose a few times, and then suddenly they’re not looked at anymore, and I don’t like that. You should look at the career when they were in their prime. That’s what’s most important, that’s where a fighter shines.