“Smoked my head off the road” – Justin Gaethje reveals the ACCIDENT he suffered prior to his UFC 274 title loss against Charles Oliveira
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Justin Gaethje
Justin Gaethje is one of those fighters who fans can never get their eyes off – the reason for this being that he’s never really had a boring fight in the UFC.
Ever since his debut bout against Michael Johnson in 2017, Gaethje has only put on the most enthralling barnstormers for the fans, and this was visible even in his latest fight, albeit a loss, to Charles Oliveira. Gaethje had managed to drop Oliveira, only to then make the mistake of loading up too much, getting caught by a strong right jab, and then being choked out within five minutes.
However, it seems like Justin Gaethje may have been slightly compromised going into the title bout. Title bout, because, only Gaethje could have come out the lightweight champion, as Charles Oliveira had violated the stipulated threshold for championship weight.
Speaking about being compromised, he said, “My dumbass… I had like a vicious crash on my bike, smoked my head off the road, road rash all over my back, and then, looking to take all that damage that I took in that fight. That’s why I’m taking so much time off. It’s just crazy what we go through.”
Justin Gaethje could return to the title picture after a few wins
However, it doesn’t seem to be all bad for Gaethje, as he revealed that taking time off due to the ‘trauma’ has actually worked out well for him. That makes sense as well – fighters put their bodies, lives and time at risk each time they sign the dotted line to fight an opponent.
While fans may only get to see a brief 25-minute, 15-minute, or an even shorter duration fight, fighters enter into training camps about 7-8 weeks prior to get in optimal shape. And, most fighters fight twice or thrice a year. Hence, it is a full-time commitment.
That being said, we hope Justin Gaethje is able to actualize the time away from the sport to replenish physically and mentally to come back ever stronger. When he does decide to come back, he will definitely have a few options in front of him. Firstly, Rafael Fiziev has issued multiple challenges to him. If that materializes, we could have a striker v striker showdown on our hands.
Also Read- “Perfect timing”, Rafael Fiziev issues a weirder challenge than before to Justin Gaethje
On the other hand, Gaethje has expressed the desire to take on the winner of Poirier vs Chandler. Depending on how that goes, we could see him rematch Dustin Poirier. Lastly, now that Charles Oliveira is not the champion, he will be looking for an opponent to get himself back in contention. Justin Gaethje could look at that as another solid rematch opportunity.
Whatever be the case, Gaethje needs a couple of wins under his belt, and the division to work out in favour to challenge Islam Makhachev (or whoever holds the belt then) for the title in the coming years.
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Udayan Mukherjee
(382 Articles Published)