UFC Exclusive: Justin Gaethje 'Not Done' After UFC 300, Reflects on Holloway Performance
"My intentions will be the same."
Justin Gaethje insists he isn't done fighting his style of fight after his defeat to Max Holloway at UFC 300.
It wasn't too long ago that 'The Highlight' revealed he had 'one or two' more wars left in him before he would consider retirement --- and in an interview with MMAKnockout's Mat Riddle, he admitted his battle with Holloway "definitely" counted as a war.
Q: You said not long ago that you only have one or two more wars left in you. Do you consider the Max Holloway fight a war, and can fans expect to see any more classic Gaethje performances?
"I mean, [it] was certainly a war," Gaethje said. "Certainly the definition of a war, especially getting put to sleep like that. That definitely counted as one. Yeah, but I'm not done. I'm gonna fight in the future --- and that's the only way that I fight.
"So even if I wanted to change how I fight, it's really not possible. That's how I compete. It's how I've competed since I was a kid. And so the next time I step in there, you know, the best live show on Earth. We'll see if I have as good a dance partner as I had this last weekend. But yeah, my intentions will be the same."
Gaethje insisted that he's focused on recovery and hasn't given a thought as to who he could fight next.
Justin Gaethje Reflects on Broken Nose, Knocking Down Max Holloway at UFC 300
A major turning point in Gaethje's UFC 300 performance was the broken nose he suffered at the end of round one. The injury appeared to stifle the style of Gaethje, who is renowned for biting down on his gumshield and swinging for the bleachers.
Max Holloway busted the nose of Justin Gaethje in the dying seconds of round one.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Q: In terms of recovery, the broken nose in round one must have been awful, how you tanked on for another 20 minutes. How badly did that affect your performance in the fight?
"I'm not sure how bad of an effect it had on my performance," Gaethje answered. "But, I'm in such a competitive mindset. And when something like that happens, you just kind of, you just gotta let it go. You can't think about it too much, because you're still fighting, there's still a lot more danger right in front of you.
"I think the human body does some very special things when it understands and perceives danger. It triggers the fight or flight response, and I always choose fight. [The broken nose doesn't matter] because it's so much deeper than an artificial wound, you know, what you're fighting for.
"I'm able to go to a special place whenever I'm in those situations and [it] sucked but you process it and then it goes away. You know, especially right at the end of a round it sucks because you got to go back to the corner and sit and think about it, you got 60 seconds to really understand what happened.
"... It definitely gained him [Holloway] some momentum. He fought a perfect fight where it was almost impossible for me to get that momentum back."
Despite Holloway hitting the deck in round four, a knockdown wasn't recorded in Gaethje's favor.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Despite holding records for significant strikes landed and absorbed, Holloway still hasn't suffered a knockdown or knockout in his professional career. Gaethje appeared to put an end to that streak in round four when he sat the Hawaiian down with a right hook to the temple, but the UFC didn't register it as a knockdown.
Q: What do you think of round four when you put Holloway on his ass? And the UFC hasn't recorded it as a knockdown, do you feel like you could have been robbed as the first guy to ever put Max Holloway down?
"Yeah. I think when this fight goes into the UFC Hall of Fame as one of the best fights of the year, It'll be known that we both dropped each other," Gaethje explained. "But he put me to sleep. There's no top of that. So he was definitely the winner. And I'm not going to get angry about semantics. I think that obviously, he went down from a strike, but it is what it is."
Gaethje will be showing the techniques behind the punching power that dropped Holloway at UFC 300 in his new collaboration with OFTV. 'The Highlight' is set to feature in an episode of 'Rise & Grind', a show focused on providing insight into the lives of elite athletes.
"Yeah, that's the main focus of all of our videos," Gaethje said when prompted about a punching power instructional. "My coach is so different from any other coach I've worked out with and any other coach that I've watched and try to understand. It's not about the punches you're dong, it's about the position of your feet, and the distribution of your weight. And I think that's what we teach, and that's definitely what we'll be sharing."
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