Justin Gaethje reacts to brutal audio of him hitting Tony Ferguson: 'This is music to my ears!'
We are one week away from perhaps the most anticipated bout in the year as undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov takes on Justin Gaethje.
In his seven UFC appearances, Justin Gaethje has won nine post-fight bonuses with at least one bonus award in each of his seven fights, thus becoming the first fighter to do so. His reckless style and iron-clad mindset have deservedly earned him the moniker of “The Highlight”.
Justin Gaethje gets his title shot after a devastating 5th round stoppage of the former number 1 contender Tony Ferguson in May earlier this year.
Justin Gaethje took to twitter to share a video of his fight with Ferguson. The nearly minute-long video contains highlights from his encounter with Ferguson and the terrifying sounds his strikes make while hitting ‘El Cucuy’ is audible in the audience-less arena.
Justin Gaethje stated that these sounds were ‘music to his ears’ as he celebrated the carnage he created against Tony Ferguson.
Justin Gaethje fought Tony Ferguson after Khabib could not travel to the US due to COVID-19
Incidentally, Justin Gaethje – Tony Ferguson fight was not the original plan for the UFC. Ferguson was set to take on Khabib (for the umpteenth time) but the fight fell out due to the pandemic. Thus, Justin Gaethje was roped in as a replacement and the bout was scheduled to be for the interim lightweight championship.
Tony Ferguson, who himself is considered as one of the most brutal, unorthodox, and technically sound strikers, was outclassed in the fight since round 1 and seemed to have no answers for Justin’s kicks and punches.
He took substantial damage throughout the fight and was visibly hurt prompting the referee to stop the contest in the fifth round.
Gaethje then famously disowned the interim belt saying that he wanted “the real thing”.
His folkstyle wrestling and his willingness to take damage to cause damage has resulted in Gaethje being widely considered as the biggest challenge of Khabib’s undefeated career so far. Gaethje has also stated in a recent interview that his advantage lies in his style as Khabib’s approach is “not to get hurt” contrary to Justin’s approach of “ending the fight”.
Whether Justin succeeds or not in his endeavor remains to be seen but for now, we can all enjoy the destructive symphony of Justin Garthje’s striking.