{"id":710964,"date":"2026-06-02T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710964\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:16:08","slug":"justin-gaethje-takes-shot-at-ilia-topurias-divorce-i-would-leave-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710964\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje takes shot at Ilia Topuria&#8217;s divorce: &#8216;I would leave him&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Things just escalated a notch between foes <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/ilia-topuria\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ilia Topuria;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Ilia Topuria&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Ilia Topuria<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/justin-gaethje\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Justin Gaethje;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Justin Gaethje&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Justin Gaethje<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gaethje, who&#8217;s set to unify the UFC lightweight title against Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, just took a personal shot at <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ufcs-ilia-topuria-vents-spread-132147699.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Topuria&#039;s recent divorce;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Topuria&#039;s recent divorce&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Topuria&#8217;s recent divorce<\/a> from his ex-wife Giorgina Uzcategui. It&#8217;s another instance of family being dragged into their trash talk after Topuria recently responded to comments Gaethje&#8217;s father made analyzing the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/ufc\/ufc-white-house-freedom-250-justin-gaethje-brutal-dig-at-ilia-topuria-over-divorce-exwife-giorgina-uzcategu\/news-story\/fb19a02a38534324b49ff333433241fa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Fox Australia;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Fox Australia&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Fox Australia<\/a>, Gaethje went at the Spanish-Georgian fighter when asked about Topuria&#8217;s calling card of bringing a rose to the opponents he defeats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All that guy is, is a gimmick,&#8221; Gaethje said. &#8220;He calls himself the king. He thinks he&#8217;s a God. What an annoying little bastard. I couldn&#8217;t imagine being in a room with him for 30 minutes listening to him talk about himself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I can say this: I would leave him. That&#8217;s all I&#8217;m saying. I would leave him. No way I would put up with his sh*t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">More: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/coach-highlights-ilia-topuria-flaw-161021896.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Coach highlights Ilia Topuria flaw that Justin Gaethje could expose;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Coach highlights Ilia Topuria flaw that Justin Gaethje could expose&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coach highlights Ilia Topuria flaw that Justin Gaethje could expose<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gaethje is not a fan of Topuria&#8217;s antics and persona, but this isn&#8217;t the first time he&#8217;s felt this way toward a rival. With 15 years of fighting professionally, Gaethje has seen it all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was similar with Paddy Pimblett. He was so full of himself,&#8221; Gaethje said. &#8220;It can be so detrimental to approach life that way, thinking you\u2019re better than everybody else, because nobody is better than anyone. We\u2019re all children of God. You\u2019re a product of your circumstances at the end of the day. I\u2019ve been so blessed with the parents I have, the family I have, and the opportunities I\u2019ve been granted. And I thank God every single day for those opportunities. And I promise daily that I will never change. No matter the success, no matter the failure. I\u2019ve promised countless times to my Lord and Savior that I will never disappoint him. Or that I won\u2019t ever think I\u2019m better than anything or anybody. That\u2019s how I got here. That\u2019s how I\u2019ve resonated with people. For me, that\u2019s the way I have to live.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Gaethje and Topuria meet in the main event of UFC Freedom 250, which goes down on the South Lawn of the White House. &#8220;The Highlight&#8221; won the UFC interim lightweight title after beating Pimblett in January.<\/p>\n<p>The interim belt was implemented as Topuria wasn&#8217;t available to defend his undisputed title due to the divorce he was going through. Topuria last fought in June 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/ufc-317-results-ilia-topuria-051600128.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:knocking out Charles Oliveira for the vacant belt;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;knocking out Charles Oliveira for the vacant belt&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">knocking out Charles Oliveira for the vacant belt<\/a> at 155 pounds.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/06\/02\/ufc-white-house-justin-gaethje-ilia-topuria-divorce-personal-shot\/90372363007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UFC White House: Justin Gaethje digs at Ilia Topuria&#039;s divorce;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;UFC White House&quot;}\" class=\"link \">UFC White House: Justin Gaethje digs at Ilia Topuria&#8217;s divorce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things just escalated a notch between foes Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. Gaethje, who&#8217;s set to unify the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,17499,8944,785,85,787,263470],"class_list":["post-710964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-freedom-250"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710964","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=710964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}