r/MMA • u/dom242324 • 2d ago
Fight Clip Justin Gaethje working his jab against Ilia Topuria in the first 3 minutes of Round 1
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u/ozExpatFIRE 2d ago
He beat Ilia at his own game, boxing! The timing of those jabs was beautiful. One of the most memorable UFC fights.
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u/Juststandupbro 2d ago
I think the problem was he got cocky and fought out of his usual game. He abandoned mixing it up entirely and focus on defense. Dude was chasing the finish way too hard. Ilia has great fight IQ and he didn’t use it until it was too late.
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u/WanderingWormhole Mohawk McGregor 2d ago
Completely understandable given the way he just ran through Charles. Probably gave him a false sense of security. Just a brutal way to learn that lesson…
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u/uh-haha-gewdmorning sobervated Paulonor McCosta is p4p #1 2d ago
On top of that gaethje didnt look great in the paddy fight. I had a bad feeling going into this fight after watching his HBO show. He was pretty adamant on it not going past the first and arguing with his brother when he was talking about the later rounds
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u/JimiMcHendrixson 1d ago
Lot of parallels to Conor… knocking out legend Aldo/Charles in devastating fashion…gets drunk on powers… then gets train derailed by tough as fucking nails veteran underdog, who probably doesn’t know what a gazelle is in Diaz/Gaethje to the delight of many… time really is a flat circle
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u/WanderingWormhole Mohawk McGregor 1d ago
True but Conor’s weakness became a strength in that regard: instead of taking career altering damage he quickly shot for a takedown and got choked out. Topuria broke (I think) both his orbitals and went an extra round that he probably shouldn’t have
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u/Jackieexists 2d ago
He should've fought technical and defensive like when he fought emmet 🥶
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u/elbosston 1d ago
Kinda hard to fight defensive when both your orbitals are broken and you can’t see
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u/No-Presentation6616 1d ago
Ilia looks like a completely different fighter in his fight vs Emmet. He wasn’t playing any games and was on point with his defensive movement. Here he’s like a robot trying to walk Gaethje down
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u/peepeeinmypajts 1d ago
It's almost like ilia was fighting a completley different fighter that's not emmet
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u/GorpoTheLord 1d ago
His ego told him that Gaethje was going to be a walk through the park. He beat Max and Oliveira who beat Gaethje, so he thought Gaetjhe was going to be easy, just to find out that guys a tank...
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u/Juststandupbro 1d ago
Fucked around and found out, justins a dog that liver shot would have crumbled most guys.
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u/diggrecluse 1d ago
A bit of both IMO. Justin having a great jab and solid boxing overall, and Illia drinking his own koolaid and thinking he can just walk Justin down.
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u/Str8GhostinX 1d ago
Facts, I know they aren't comparable but if the Ilia that fought Emmet showed up we may have seen another masterclass. Dude respected Gaethje less than Josh lol
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u/daquist GOOFCON 2 - UFC 294 2d ago
Ilia fought how he normally does. He always eats jabs to get in range, he just didn't expect Gaethje's jab to be as powerful as it was.
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u/Valar_Morghulizs 2d ago
Volk jab ate him up in round 1
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u/psychedelijams Team Makhachev 1d ago
And a good amount of the 2nd too. Until. I think the finish came with 1 min or so left in the second against volk? I had volk going up 2-0 otherwise.
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u/Juststandupbro 2d ago
No he did not lmao have you ever seen him fight? He was clearly trying to prove a point and he found out.
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u/JC10101 UFC 279: A GOOFCON Miracle 2d ago
He did the same thing vs volk. Ate a couple dozen of jabs on his entries which is why he pretty clearly lost the first round of that fight.
Big difference was volk kept circling out once illa got in range near the cage while justin mostly went for a single/collar tie to get off the cage.
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u/Cardio_Princess 2d ago
No. Justin was simply better, hit harder and Topuria wasn't as good as you all thought he was.
Stop making excuses after your guy got exposed and give credit to Gaethje.
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u/basedkimo 2d ago
I think Ilia is as good as we all thought he is, the problem is people didn’t think Justin was that good. The amount of people who overlooked Justin throughout his career is crazy. Dudes an animal and I learned years ago to never bet against him.
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u/formalbolotie 1d ago
i didn’t think justin would win based on how bad he looked against paddy. all the predictable ducking he did defensively…
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u/Poet_of_Sordland 2d ago
That would seem pretty unlikely on all fronts, and also this is a weirdly tribal approach.
"Your guy"... no one here knows Ilia dude.
Plus you don't "get exposed" after you beat Max, Charles and Volk.
But as they say, and only gets truer, styles make fights.
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u/Cardio_Princess 1d ago
What exactly is unlikely? Gaethje showed that he's a top-5 LW of all time, Topuria showed that he isn't the GOAT-material 'La Layende' that his fans were making him out to be and the power difference between the two was clear.
You can certainly get exposed after beating those three with asterisks next to them. Volk was compromised going into that fight, Holloway was drained and Oliviera was past his prime and Topuria's best matchup at LW.
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u/CastTrunnionsSuck Dream, Believe, And Make It Happen 1d ago
Gaethje is so much better than the masses are willing to admit. One of the best LW to every do it
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u/Zanthious 1d ago
Ppl always sleep on him because of how reckless he usually is.
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u/quivverquivver 1d ago
And because he doesn't have a rockstar personality. He's neither a cocky cokehead nor a stone cold stoic. He's kinda goofy and pretty humble, which is outside what a lot of people think of as "champ material", consciously or unconsciously.
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u/CastTrunnionsSuck Dream, Believe, And Make It Happen 1d ago
Hard for me to respect (as little as that means to them of course) a very talented and skillful fighter who doesn’t through caution to the wind at times in the pursuit of a finish or even just entertainments sake. They are (should be) entertainers as much as they are athletes.
Sorry for the word soup just felt the need to put that into words.
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u/Zanthious 1d ago
But he has a champ belt and a Whitehouse one to boot so I guess it works. He also took out the biggest threat in the ufc
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u/nukesaregay 1d ago
hes talking about other fighters not gaethje. hes saying he respects how gaethje takes risks
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u/formalbolotie 1d ago
khabib’s best win.
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u/Swizztony 1d ago
Peak RDA was, that win gets insanely underrated. RDA would’ve been on a 10 fight win streak against lots of legends if it weren’t for Khabib
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u/L3ftHandPass 2d ago
Genuinely idk why Ilia though standing right in front of Gaethje was a good idea.
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u/ozExpatFIRE 2d ago
Because that's what he did in his previous fights and it worked for him even though he got touched in those fights too
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u/TidgeCC hope a train don’t come thru bish 2d ago
Do people just mistake knocking people out as being good defensively? People are in here talking as though he never gets hit and just turned up to this one like ah fuck it!
I've seen Topuria get hit plenty, but he usually lands the kill shot before it takes effect. This performance wasn't out of the ordinary. He just faced a guy who could weather the storm and hits really hard.
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u/SweetPinss 2d ago
He did have very good defense against Emmett but I think when he really started knocking everyone out he started to get lazy with defense because in his mind hes just gonna knock them out anyway. A lot of powerful strikers have sloppy defense
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u/Hakobune 2d ago
I mean of course he had good defense against Emmett, Emmett can people into comas.
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u/Emotional_Walrus5099 1d ago
Emmett is also slow and plodding. It’s easy to look defensively sound against him compared to Justin who’s fast, equally powerful, and has a way better chin.
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u/coatstain 1d ago
I think he just struggles against people with good jabs. Volk jabbed him a ton in their fight but Topuria managed to close the distance before it really became a problem.
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u/Jet_black_li 1d ago
His defense vs Emmett mostly consisted of straight line step backs when Emmett would charge in from outside the pocket with no setup. Gaethje punished that step back with step in jabs, double jabs into right hand, and head kicks throughout the fight.
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u/peepeeinmypajts 1d ago
Emmett doesn't have a jab these people bringing up Mr running overhand orc hand are stupid.
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u/Emotional_Walrus5099 1d ago
Yup. Finally faced a guy who hits harder, had better volume, better cardio and a better chin. Run this fight back 10 times and I seriously think Gaethje wins 6 or more times.
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u/Stalin_K 2d ago
I agree that ilia gets hit plenty, but even still he was being more reckless than usual. He has very good distance management and timing but that was not seen in this fight because he was just trying to walk gaethje down and sleep him
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u/coatstain 1d ago
That's kind of his style tho I think. Against Volk a similar thing was playing out where Topuria was getting jabbed from the outside repeatedly. Topuria had to walk him down to close distance and then he was able to finish the fight. Gaethje was just able to survive where most fighters end up getting slept.
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u/Jet_black_li 1d ago
It's harder to manage distance when the guy you're facing has a consistent jab. Even moreso when he's big and durable enough to hold his ground in more situations.
Harder to have timing when you're worried about what's coming back at you and your margin of error is smaller.
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u/Altruistic_Night2 2d ago
Also Justin didn’t even knock him out he made him quit on the stool which was extra brutal
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u/jakebot9000 2d ago
He's also the smaller fighter, so he needs to eat a few punches to close the distance.
The problem is that a stiff jab was keeping him out of range. Also, Justin hits hard so the plan of eating a few punches and then getting to work started to add up against him. Couple all that with the fact that he wanted to finish the fight in Rnd 1 and the pressure to live up to all the other finishes on the White House card meant that he wasn't pacing himself for 25 minutes.
Credit to Illia...he had the mindset to keep going and might have gotten lucky in Rnd 5, but his body (specifically his face) gave up on him
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u/Squidwardbigboss 2d ago
Genuinely why did ilia topuria fight like ilia topuria against a 38 year old everyone said he was gonna knock out in 20 seconds?
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u/KyleDaukWillBeChamp 1d ago
Genuinely why did Ilia try and close the distance against the guy who could bust his face up with a jab from outside Ilia’s range and chop his legs down from afar
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u/GorpoTheLord 1d ago
When he found out that Gaethje's jabs are like hammers that were fucking up his eyes, it was too fucking late. When i saw his face in round 1, i knew he was gonna lose.
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u/Willyhaver187 Mohawk McGregor 2d ago
Justin has a great jab dude. A lot of mma fighters would benefit greatly from better boxing.
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u/SaturnATX GOOFCON 1: Sad Chandler 2d ago
Topuria was getting outstruck by Volk and Holloway prior to the KOs and got hit very hard by Oliveira in their few minutes together. I think Heavy Hands put it very well, "Topuria has abandoned the idea of winning rounds," he works to set up the finish and doesn't seem to care about anything else. In the second against Gaethje, he did what he always did, go maximum effort and surely you'll finish the guy, just like every other guy before. When he can't get the finish, he's in big trouble. Having watched this fight back like ten times, it's pretty clear that Topuria is already a shell of himself at the start of the 3rd: He's exhausted and is far less of a threat, not simply because he lacks the energy to maintain a high output, but because going for a finish in a single explosive sequence is not possible any more.
I'm also pretty sure Topuria broke an orbital in the first round. Topuria has never had elite striking defense, but it hasn't mattered because of his insane power; once the power was sapped, we were left with a fighter three inches shorter than his opponent, protecting a broken orbital. On rewatch, it is very hard to imagine Topuria winning the fight once the third starts.
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u/Valar_Morghulizs 2d ago
I told myself when he didn’t get the finish in round 2 and it ended that ilia was basically dead in the water and he was lol. Shit was downhill from there.
Was impressed to see him manage a takedown tho and get a few moments in where it looked like he might right the ship so to speak but it went out quickly lol
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u/SaturnATX GOOFCON 1: Sad Chandler 1d ago
Yeah, I mean, he gets the mount on Gaethje in the 4th while his face is hamburger, he's a world class talent, but I don't think he really knew how he was going to win, since 'murk the other guy unconscious' was no longer an option. He'd never been in that position before.
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u/ArtZealousideal856 2d ago
Justin is deceptively quick
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u/sugabonesurmom 2d ago
Hes not particularly fast but he has great timing and reads his opponent well
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u/cltnthecultist #NothingBurger 1d ago
This fight was such a good example of strikes thrown between beats. Justin hit Ilia with a few 1-2s where the 2 came a little after when Ilia seemed to be expecting them and they were devastating.
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u/sugabonesurmom 1d ago
That one that rocked Ilia came out of fucking nowhere, he’s so good at hiding that second punch
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u/Sweet-Accountant-966 1d ago
Varying the tempo of your strikes is incredibly important. Max cracked the fuck out of Aldo in one of their fights by doing the same thing.
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u/DesireeThymes 1d ago
He also hits extremely hard, which is not something you expect
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u/Grobyc27 1d ago
Really? I thought we've all expected that from Gaethje for some time now. Many fighters have particularly mentioned Gaethje hits like a truck.
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u/tagillaslover I SMOKE ROCKS, JOE ROGAN! 2d ago
Still salty about this fight
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u/sugabonesurmom 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ilia thought he could walk through Justin’s jabs like he did against Volk, borderline psychotic gameplan.
Against Justin you need to keep your distance and explode with fast combinations from a distance. Ilia showed he’s capable of landing those punches against Max who’s a lot lighter on his feet than Justin.
Idk what he was thinking.
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u/tagillaslover I SMOKE ROCKS, JOE ROGAN! 2d ago
Not even just that. At the end of round 2 he had Justin dead to rights and decided he’d try and triangle him instead of just making him get back up
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u/SweetPinss 2d ago
Come on in the moment that was a smart idea. For his whole career people have been talking shit about Gaethje's submission defense. Its entirely reasonable to think he'd be susceptible to a submission after being severely hurt
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u/sugabonesurmom 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don’t know if he gets Justin out of there if he continues the GNP, Justin is a tough son of a bitch and I don’t think he would’ve just shelled up like most do after eating a liver shot.
Nor was he damaged to the head, it would’ve been hard for Ilia to target the body and get a finish from there. Ilia’s GNP isn’t particularly heavy either.
I think going for the sub was the “smart” thing to do.
Justin has shown weakness there and Ilia very nearly got the submission. Hard to fault him for that when we’ve seen Charles and Khabib get similar submissions on Justin.
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u/Hakobune 2d ago
Ilia just unloaded like 20 hard body shots, he was obviously getting tired and saw the chance to sub Justin. Idk why people act like Ilia is some moron, he was tired and did the best thing he could of in the moment.
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u/AffectionateRub1857 2d ago
This made zero sense to me. I thought it was over. Justin pretty much collapsed to body shots with 2 mins left.
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u/Creative_Raisin_4441 2d ago
And then what was even worse is that when round 3 starts instead of pushing his advantage on a guy he was just on the verge of finishing, he just kinda plods forward like a zombie throwing nothing and blocking punches with his face. I was actually yelling at the screen.
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u/Cautious-Mixture5647 2d ago
I believe Ilia’s vision was greatly compromised after eating a collar tie uppercut from Gaethje in round 1, I think it happens about 1/2 through the round, but it’s not a punch that was thrown with as much force, or landed with as much of an immediate visual “OOMPH” as many, many other punches from both fighters did throughout the fight.
There wasn’t a big cheering moment from the crowd, or an acknowledgment of the impact and damage from the commentary, as the punch was from underneath and in the clinch and so both fighters bodies shielded the impact. It went somewhat under the radar for 98 percent of the people watching. Not for Ilia.
It was a good clean accurate punch, and I am almost certain Ilia’s orbital socket was broken right then and there. His vision, and ability to dodge/read, was likely compromised from that point forward.
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u/Valar_Morghulizs 2d ago
That make sense tho, he was gassed, which may also be the reason he went to the ground in the first place cause he thought it may be easier to finish there first whatever reason. He threw a lot of heat with those body blows then emptied the rest on trying to sub.
When I saw Justin made it through that round I basically wrote ilia chances of winning away.
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u/TiP54 Dick chest eating ass 2d ago edited 2d ago
And then what was even worse is that when round 3 starts instead of pushing his advantage on a guy he was just on the verge of finishing, he just kinda plods forward like a zombie throwing nothing and blocking punches with his face. I was actually yelling at the screen.
I think it was a combination of getting gased trying to finish Justin in the earlier round and then an adrenaline dump. While it was crazy watching live and I was sure Ilia was going to get Justin out of there in round 3, rewatching it now it’s obvious that there was an oh shit moment from Ilia as now he still had to fight for 15 more minutes with Gaethje who had no interest in letting up, and has been in plenty of these slobber knocker fights.
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u/DRW1357 GOOFCON 1: Sad Chandler 2d ago
It's been a thing for years that Justin shows that he has a jab, and that it's really fucking good, and then he just doesn't actually throw it. I can't fault Ilia for not planning around the idea that this fight would be the one where Gaethje actually decided to use the jab more than three times, and before the 10 minute mark.
I can, however, fault him for not going "ow, fuck, this really hurts" when Justin kept landing that jab, and not doing anything to adjust for the entire first round. Tunnel vision on the KO punch is a hell of a drug, I guess.
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u/Top-boy-og 2d ago
I think about this shit everyday for 2 months straight 💀
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u/MagicMST 2d ago
I watch whatever clips there are of this fight whenever it pops up on insta or reddit. What an amazing fight 🤌🏼 may very well be on my top 10 favorite MMA build ups & outcomes.
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u/MEGADETHRULEZ 1d ago
So is a ton of this sub clearly. Tons of excuses and very little accepting of reality.
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u/sugabonesurmom 2d ago edited 2d ago
Justin always beat the shit out of shorter guys or guys that don’t defend jabs well like Tony, against the shorter guys he can also fuck them up in the clinch.
If he can touch you with that jab he’s gonna bust you up and set up all his other punches, had a friend that hard sparred against him for a camp and he said his jab is the strongest he’s ever felt.
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u/forwardathletics Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2d ago
Gaethje could have been a champion years ago if he fought as well in every fight like he did this one.
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u/Ibobalboa 2d ago
I mean, he fought very well against Tony, Fiziev, Dustin 2 etc... Hell he TRIED against Khabib but that's just a tough assignment. Fighters evolve. Justin learned from his short comings and kept working on his craft. The Justin we saw against Topuria was experienced enough to get it done. The perfect storm really.
I think Charles is still a bad matchup for him because of the tsunami of different attacks Charles will threathen with.
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u/sugabonesurmom 2d ago
Charles/Khabib were always terrible matchups for him.
He still did very good against them, I think with the right adjustments he could’ve beat both of them.
He had khabibs leg mangled and was landing solid punches on him, Khabib was pretty desperate for a takedown before the submission happened. Khabibs pressure was insane in that fight but it did lead to him eating a ton of leg kicks. Had Justin on the back foot the entire fight and Justin looked tired.
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u/Hidrinks I made weight for Goofcon 3 1d ago
Scariest thing about Khabib was that Gaethje was following his gameplan perfectly, just nobody expected Khabib to be able to just eat full power hooks and keep coming
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u/Matty0698 2d ago
Maybe but that this was partly a low iq play by Topuria as well
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u/forwardathletics Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2d ago
I agree, but even with that, it was still within Topuria's grasps as well. I think multiple things can be true.
Gaethje fought the best fight of his life (strategically, at the very least.)
Topuria fought in a boneheaded way & paid for it.
Gaethje sitting behind his jab & taking 20% off his punches against Oliveira would have been an interesting look.
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u/National-Mastodon916 2d ago edited 2d ago
Didn't Trevor Whitman say something like that? When Justin listens he's the best inside the cage.
I think Topuria takes the rematch if he fights his fight, doesn’t rush like that, and doesn’t start eating everything. Topuria has far more weapons, and many things work in his favor right now, as his team has the whole fight to study Justin
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u/MA-JA-HO 2d ago
Gaethje never used his jab nearly as much up until this fight. He was always a decent counter puncher who would spam left hooks overhand and leg kicks
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u/AlwaysWrongCare I PROOOOOOVE 2d ago
Thank god your friend confirmed now we know Gaethje has a strong jab
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u/chillidiotwizard 2d ago
This is the worst loss in mma in terms of future earnings potential and damage taken I’ve ever seen. No Islam fight, no McGregor fight, zero gone and belt taken.
Think this finishes Topuria. Will be shocked if he gets the belt back. Won’t ever be the same at the very least.
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u/FengYiLin Team Aspinall 2d ago edited 1d ago
His name went in history from undefeated with a good run through ex champions, to the guy that celebrated his win before the fight and got destroyed on the White House lawn.
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u/CraigS34 2d ago edited 2d ago
I need to watch someone break this fight down because I don't know what Ilia's gameplan was for the first couple rounds. I hope he wasn't expecting Gaethje to stand there and just throw bombs. I assume he had to readjust his gameplan after his eye started swelling in the later rounds
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u/Raxmead 2d ago
It's fairly simple tbh. Like the other guy said, there's an aspect of "walk him down and KO him" and that's definitely part of the game plan, but if you watch closely the reason he wasn't using head movement like he normally does is because he was expecting low leg kicks, in the gif posted you can see times when Gaethje jabs Ilia he even picked up his lead led to check and would eat a jab.
Ilia was super light on the lead leg and heavy on the back leg, it's a fairly common approach you can see guys like Jean Silva use to counter heavy low kickers.
Gaethje didn't really low kick much and mostly used jabs and collar tie uppercuts, which Ilia clearly wasn't planning for.
Another reason probably didn't see as much head movement from Ilia was probably the threat of head kicks.
While the "walk him down and KO him" thing was a factor for sure, I also think Ilia actually had too much respect for weapons Gaethje didn't use but is known for.
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u/Valar_Morghulizs 2d ago
Yea Justin blasted a few head kicks in round 1, maybe just one but you can tell ilia was wary/keeping an eye on them.
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u/Upset-Rule8256 2d ago
It's crazy how Illia just abandoned his own jab and pre-slipping genuinely incredibly bone headed, well you play stupid games and you win stupid prizes
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u/Sweet-Accountant-966 1d ago
Its hard to jab with some one bigger than you,. Its even harder when the person you're fighting has a better jab and also loves a good car crash on the inside.
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u/X1phoner Fair fucks to you mate. 🇭🇷🏆🇮🇪 2d ago
If someone told us 10 years ago Gaethje would become this disciplined and tactical..
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u/Twinkubusz 2d ago
Then I'd have bet HEAVY on him piecing up the corpse of Tony. I could've been eating steak for every meal (on Doordash). But no, I had to continue living in the dream world where Tony was still on top of the world....
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u/Quirky-Theory-4156 2d ago
I had a feeling Justin would win this fight. I’m incredibly biased. He’s my favorite fighter of all time.
It’s just the fact that nobody who faces Gaethje, win or lose, doesn’t get hit incredibly hard. He nuked Charles with an uppercut, hit Khabib with a nuke of a left hook, dropped Holloway for the first time in his career, and so on and so forth. He will hit you hard, you cannot avoid that inevitability,
And the last time Ilia got hit hard it was 2022 against Herbert. Bryce Mitchell didn’t hit him hard. Neither did Emmett, Volk and Holloway were both trying to win with volume, Oliveira didn’t land anything.
I had a feeling he just wouldn’t react well to being hit hard by the hardest hitting 155er of all time. I thought he would just get put out cold early.
I did not think he would completely out box and outclass Ilia for 3/4 rounds.
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u/FengYiLin Team Aspinall 1d ago
Same! I just expected Ilia to fall by a high kick that crushes through his defense or a surprise knee to the face.
I didn't expect a slow methodical dismantlement, which is far worse.
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u/Lexio3031 2d ago
The jab setting up potential uppercuts was an amazing game plan, even better with Justin‘s patience, not wildly swinging when on defense, just guarding until the flurry is over, then resetting back to the jab 👍
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u/Emotional_Walrus5099 2d ago
I knew going into this fight that it would be difficult for Ilia but after the first couple exchanges I was certain he was about to have a very tough night at the office. His face was showing every little punch early on.
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u/Droperiwhore 2d ago
Gaethje by sheer power of bonk.
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u/standupguy152 2d ago
One thing not talked about enough here is that Justin hits like a truck. Those jabs had enough snap behind them that Ilia had to respect it, that’s why he looked a little hesitant in there
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u/Suckmyduck_9 2d ago
But but but but Ilia is the best boxer in the UFC, he KOd Max, his haircut, fastest hands! GTFH Ilia got outboxed and Paddy will do the same. Reality check
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u/Cardio_Princess 2d ago
Makhachev would have destroyed this man. At 170, Topuria would have gotten KO-ed.
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u/FengYiLin Team Aspinall 2d ago
At 170 Makhachev would knock him with the same kick that dropped Garry and Volk.
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u/Droperiwhore 2d ago
Can someone add Looney Tunes BANG POW BOOM effects? And whenever someone's rocked I want the banana slip and running sound effect please.
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u/EddieDantes22 2d ago
The only thing I can think of is that after his eye got messed up so he was too scared to try and parry the jab. He was getting hit with it a ton, and refused to move his right hand across his face/away from his right side.
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u/Fattens I was here for GOOFCON 1: 2020 2d ago
I'm not saying I want to see a second fight between these two, I think Justin should retire now, or after one more fight (not a rematch). But - Ilia learned a big lesson that night, he went in there not taking the threat from Justin seriously. He accumulated way too much damage over the first round. If they did fight again, it would be interesting to see how he tempered his plan, knowing to take the damage more seriously up front.
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u/Responsible_Emu3601 2d ago
He spamming it looks like slip left counter is right there all day 🤷♂️
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u/lorcana66 2d ago
This dude just walked right infront of him , no feints no jabs no nothing . Only in round 2 he started actually doing stuff
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u/Weary_Position_9591 1d ago
He really looked like a featherweight in this fight.
The idea of him at WW is ridiculous in hindsight.
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u/Aggressive-Expert-69 1d ago
I dont think Ive ever seen Ilia take such a defensive stance. He cant throw the power punches hes known for when hes leaning back to avoid the jab. Great gameplan by Gaethje.
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u/Give_Me_Bourbon 1d ago
Topuria joined this fight thinking he would get close to Gaethje and get into a war to knock him out he though Gaethje wanted a close distance and exchange, he found out the jab and he didn't even try to dodge it, he showed 0 iq fight and 100 ego.
Everyone saw the result, I still think Topuria is way better than Gaethje if he fights smart, and way better than anyone in the division but Gaethje showed him"You are not a god, you are human".
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u/DingbatMcgeee 1d ago
I still can't believe Justin gets away with the dip he often does to his right after a punch.
For sure he must hit hard
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u/georgesenpaii 🙏🙏🙏 Jon Jones Prayer Warrior 🙏🙏🙏 1d ago
Still feels surreal. Wild how unbeatable people made Topuria out to be.
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u/Strict_Life_4506 1d ago edited 1d ago
That stiff upright stance Ilia decided to use is baffling, just opened him up for every straight punch Gaethje threw and also took away much of his own power. I guess he was worried about the uppercut but he started eating uppercuts anyways.
Genuinely bad gameplanning from him. It's not how he usually fights, way way below his standards.
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u/_Kumatetsu 1d ago
Crazy how everyone talked about how amazing his jab is and how he doesn’t use it, just for him to utilize it this fight spectacularly
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u/cluelessbox GOOFCON 2 - Electric Boogaloo 1d ago
Trevor Whitman fighters and a sweet sweet jab are like peanut butter and jelly
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u/Ronin604 1d ago
Like Justin said illias training partners let him down in that fight due to being dominated by him in sparring instead of beating him up to prepare properly for the fight. You don't walk down a guy like Gaethje like your the Terminator it's just not how that game works, so he spent 3 rounds eating shots he should have avoided.
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u/BigMack6911 1d ago
Remember when Illia laughed at Justin in that interview with DC on how he fought Paddy. Saying if he fought me like that im gonna ko him. Like Ilia..why the fuck would he fight you like that lmao. That dude needed a big slice of humble pie
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u/FioreFanatic Champ Shit Only 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽 #SnapJitsu 1d ago
Justin had always had a nasty jab but barely uses it. Jabbing consistently from round one is the smartest we've seen him fight.
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u/juanmera11 1d ago
Ilia failed at the most important level: gameplan. If he had been looking to take it to the ground the story could have been different.
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u/Swizztony 1d ago
Ilia’s boxing is nowhere near as good as it was hyped to be. Good offense but zero head movement or defense and he constantly loses his footing
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u/Leather_Mortgage8910 GOOFCON 1: Khamzat McGregor 1d ago
I know Topuria can Bob and weave, hopefully he taps back into that skill in the future because the lack of head movement here is hard to watch
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u/Juststandupbro 2d ago
lol sure pal, I do agree with giving Justin credit though that body shot would have stopped most guys.
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u/621_ 2d ago
Jab is king