Gaethje will face Ilia Topuria for the lightweight title at UFC White House on June 14, entering as a +385 underdog against a -500 favorite. Topuria is coming off three straight knockout wins over Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, and Charles Oliveira. Gaethje notes that, despite Topuria’s dominance, Oliveira and Holloway had success in exchanges and that both opponents made mistakes. Gaethje believes Topuria is precise and punishes errors, so he cannot afford to go backward. He plans to use head positioning to control space, push Topuria backward, and force a close-range dogfight.
"“It's very important for me to use my head for position and put my head in his chest, push him backwards, put him in a dog fight,” Gaethje told Grind City Media. “We've seen him getting hit. You watch the Max Holloway fight, you're like, 'Wow, he's so dominant.' But then you go back and watch it again, Max had plenty of success in the exchanges, Oliveira had plenty of success in the exchanges.”"
"“Then they made certain mistakes, and he is so good at taking advantage of your mistakes. So those are the things I cannot do, I cannot go backwards.”"
Read at Sherdog
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