Justin Gaethje is best known for his brawling style of fighting and this is what has followed him throughout his MMA career. The warrior image of Justin Gaethje has made him a household name in MMA, but for some reason, he decides to not his wrestling pedigree inside the Octagon.
Gaethje was an All-American wrestler at the University of Northern Colorado, but he refuses to take his opponents down during his MMA fights. This has raised huge concerns about Gaethje’s health because he is taking unneeded damage due to his eagerness to keep his fights standing.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Justin Gaethje spoke on the reasoning behind his approach to fights.
“I’ve been wrestling my whole life. 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.
“I think I sold myself so hard on the fact that this is not wrestling. 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.”
During his bout with Poirier, Gaethje took a huge amount of damage, but he never attempted to take the fight to the ground to recover from the hard shots that he took. This confused spectators. Gaethje explained what was going through his mind during the fight.
“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.”
Hopefully moving forward, Gaethje decides to change his game plan, adding in takedown’s in the process, but only Gaethje can make this decision.
Should Justin Gaethje change his fighting style?
