It has taken just one year into his UFC career for Justin Gaethje to redefine what the term all-action fight means. It has taken just as long, however, for critics to wonder whether his face-first style is sustainable (or intelligent, for that matter).
Consider fellow lightweight contender James Vick chief among that group.
Vick (13-1), who looks for the biggest win in his recent rise to notoriety within the sport's deepest and most competitive division, will take on Gaethje (18-2) on Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Lincoln, Nebraska. And "The Texecutioner" has been very outspoken in his beliefs that the 29-year-old Gaethje is more "stupid fighter" than cult action hero.
In fact, Vick went as far during the Aug. 3 news conference to announce the fight as publicly calling his opponent everything from punch drunk to "the Homer Simpson of MMA," pointing out what he believes is slurred speech Gaethje has collected from willingly entering himself into too many wars inside the cage.
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"Justin Gaethje calls himself 'The Human Highlight Reel,' I call him 'The Human Punching Bag,'" Vick said. "That guy just takes beatings and fights like an idiot. He fights like a person who doesn't have the skill set to fight any other way. He's being exposed in the UFC fighting top-level competition. You can't just take beatings and expect to have a good career."
UFC Fight Night 135 fight card
| Favorite | Underdog | Weight class |
|---|---|---|
James Vick -155 | Justin Gaethje +125 | Lightweight |
Michael Johnson -120 | Andre Fili -110 | Featherweight |
Angela Hill -145 | Cortney Casey +115 | Women's strawweight |
Bryan Barberena -500 | Jake Ellenberger +375 | Welterweight |
Deiveson Figueiredo -160 | John Moraga +135 | Flyweight |
Eryk Anders -1000 | Tim Williams +600 | Middleweight |
It didn't take long for Gaethje, a former All-American wrestler at the University of Northern Colorado, to build a name for himself as an exciting fighter in World Series of Fighting as he won the promotion's 155-pound title in just his third bout and went on to make five title defenses.
Gaethje's arrival within UFC created just as big of a splash as all three of his fights -- from his scintillating comeback stoppage of Michael Johnson in July 2017 to consecutive knockout losses to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier -- were instantly branded fight-of-the-year contenders. But for all of the recognition he has received as a celebrated brawler, Gaethje has been forced to endure tremendous punishment in order to compete on the elite level.
"Justin Gaethje doesn't impress me at all," Vick said. "Really the only attribute that he has is his heart, I'll give him that. Besides that, he's slow and unathletic. He has a short reach and throws a lot of low kicks really because he's not flexible enough to throw high kicks. The guy is way in over his head and he's going to get outclassed this fight. Should we go to the ground in this fight, it's going to hurt him more than it's going to help him.
"I can condition my legs to take a kick, but he can't condition his chin to take a punch."
While Gaethje has landed more than twice the amount of significant strikes per minute throughout his UFC run compared to Vick, he has absorbed three times as Vick in return. Gaethje has been criticized for how quickly he eschews his wrestling ability in favor of dropping his hands and testing his manhood against opponents.
Although gatekeeper is often used as a derogatory term when describing fighters who still hold title aspirations, Gaethje might be the toughest one UFC currently employs. It's part of what makes Saturday's matchup so intriguing thanks to the 31-year-old Vick's current status as a rising contender in the division following a 9-1 start to his UFC career.
Should Vick, who brings freakish size and length to the fight as a 6-foot-3 lightweight, want to be considered among the very elite, he'll have to not only prove he can defeat a fighter as tough as Gaethje, but will likely have to survive the most brutal test of his career in doing so.
"There are not many guys who have faced the level of opponent I have right off the bat in the UFC," Gaejthe said. "I want to face the best in the world.
"All this crap that he's talking, I know how confident he is and how long he has been waiting for this opportunity. It's right in front of you James, all you have to do is come out fighting."
The potential problem for Gaethje is that one day the heavy price he has paid for consistently walking through an opponent's best shots in hopes of breaking their will will catch up with him inside the cage. As history has regularly shown, once a fighter's chin goes, it's gone for good.
Gaethje, in this case, will not only have to deal with Vick's four-inch height and six-inch reach advantage on the feet, but contend with the same disadvantages if the fight goes to the ground.
"James is tall, he's a lanky fighter," Gaejthe said. "He brings challenges that I've never seen in a fight. There are things that I'm going to have to go out there and figure out on the fly. I'm going to have to use a couple of tricks up my sleeve to get this fight on the inside and make this the fight that I want."
Vick, whose only career defeat came via first-round knockout loss to Beneil Dariush in 2016, doesn't believe Gaethje will have the talent or chin to see the fight go the distance.
"I don't really care what Justin Gaethje has to say about me," Vick said. "The guy is a clown, he is a B-level fighter and he doesn't even belong in the top 10 of the UFC. He is getting exposed.
"I need to go out and get a finish and I don't think that's going to be a problem the way Justin fights. We are not going five rounds. He is going to be finished within two and a half rounds."
Prediction
No other fighter in UFC has the ability to test what you're made of quite like Gaethje, even if "The Highlight" continues to pay such a steep price for his willingness to walk into oncoming traffic. Should Vick lack anything in terms of chin, gas tank or enough of a backbone to adapt should Gaethje succeed in luring him into the deep end of the pool right away, this the wrong opponent to be exposed against.
With that said, counting on Gaethje to continue to break another man's will just doesn't appear to be a profitable system moving forward. Not to mention, Vick has a style and enough advantages in terms of length that make him an opponent who could prove to be all kinds of wrong for Gaethje, who isn't hard to find and is often predictable in his attack.
The more Gaethje summons the violence that Vick has to offer, the quicker his exit from the fight could be.
Pick: Vick via second-round KO.
