The first reaction to watching UFC lightweight Justin Gaethje fight is, “HOLY F@$%ING $#!@.” The next reaction is certaintly that ‘The Highlight’ can’t keep that up for long, and shouldn’t. However, during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, the NCAA Div I All-American said he has some changes in store after losing two in a two, most recently to Dustin Poirier.
I’ve been wrestling my whole life,” said Gaethje, as transcribed by Peter Carroll for MMA Fighting. “I should’ve and could’ve took him down a couple of times, especially when I had him rocked just to steal a round or two. For some reason, my mind will not let me do it.”
The obvious question is why Gaethje doesn’t use his tremendous wrestling.
I think I sold myself so hard on the fact that this is not wrestling,” he answered. “I don’t know, I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.
It gets you tired. If I’m going to get tired, I’d rather it be from fighting and not from wrestling. That’s the reason why I never wanted to wrestle. But I did so much cardio this camp that it would not have been a problem for me to turn it into a wrestling match, but I just can’t do it, it would not be fun for me.
It definitely would be a good idea. I have to get people guessing if I’m going to take them down or not. They know what I’m coming with right now. Everyone knows I’m going to come in there and I’m going to stop your takedowns. So, yeah, it would benefit me to keep them guessing. I need to work it into my game plan.
No, I don’t wish that I fought like that. I’m glad that I fight like I do because I love what I do, but it would be fun to add that into the game plan sometime.
I took a hard shot, it knocked me out. I definitely have to keep people guessing whether I’m going to take them down. My main game plan on Saturday night was to go in their and break his legs, and right off the bat I had a lot of success in doing that.
I know why I didn’t take him down, it would have defeated the entire purpose of my game plan. If I took him down I wouldn’t be able to kick his leg, that’s what my mindset was.
