A longtime UFC analyst and coach won\u2019t write off Justin Gaethje entirely ahead of his inevitable title unification bout with Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n
Gaethje became a two-time interim UFC Lightweight Champion when he defeated Paddy Pimblett in the UFC 324 main event. \u201cThe Highlight\u201d was a slight underdog going into the bout, but he ultimately battered \u201cThe Baddy\u201d on his way to a unanimous decision win<\/a>.<\/p>\n Topuria seems ready to end his hiatus<\/a>, as he hinted that he\u2019s back in the gym to resume his fighting career. While Topuria is widely expected to pull off the win over Gaethje, Din Thomas told MMAJunkie.com<\/a> that he wouldn\u2019t exactly bet the house on that outcome just yet.<\/p>\n \u201cJustin is not younger than he was before,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be tough for him, but we\u2019ve seen stranger things happen in this game. It\u2019s an uphill battle for Justin Gaethje to beat Ilia Topuria. I\u2019m not going to put him in the grave as of yet, but I\u2019m sure that the betting lines are going to be very skewed one way.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaethje has had a memorable pro MMA career, but he\u2019s never held undisputed UFC gold. Having turned 37 in Nov. 2025, \u201cThe Highlight\u201d is hoping to achieve that feat before he walks away from competition.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t be easy, as Topuria has gone undefeated in his pro MMA career thus far. Many believe he is the most skilled boxer in MMA. \u201cEl Matador\u201d holds knockout victories over the likes of Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski, and Charles Oliveira. Gaethje has suffered knockout losses in the past, but he\u2019s also been known to dish out some spectacular finishes.<\/p>\n BJPenn.com will keep you posted with the latest updates on Topuria vs Gaethje.<\/p>\n What chance do you give Justin Gaethje of defeating Ilia Topuria? Let us know in the comment section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime UFC analyst and coach won\u2019t write off Justin Gaethje entirely ahead of his inevitable title unification…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-471148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}