Justin Gaethje has a blunt reality check for Ilia Topuria: pack your bags and head back down to featherweight. Having snatched the UFC lightweight title from Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 in June, the seasoned veteran believes the Spanish-Georgian fighter is fighting out of his depth at 155 pounds. With a decade of high-level lightweight battles under his belt, Gaethje felt a distinct physical gap between Topuria and the elite of the division.
“I don’t think he’s a lightweight,” Gaethje said on the Flagrant Podcast. “I think he should go down. He can beat Volkanovski and be champion at featherweight again. I don’t think he’ll ever be a champion at lightweight. He can’t beat Arman [Tsarukyan], and he’s going to have a difficult time with Paddy [Pimblett]. There’s a bunch of dogs here… I think he’s undersized for lightweight. That’s what I felt.”
Before moving up to knock out Charles Oliveira for the 155-pound strap, Topuria built a fearsome reputation at 145 pounds with knockout wins over Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. The loss to Gaethje was the first blemish on his record, prompting Topuria to make unsubstantiated claims that Gaethje had illegally padded his gloves. Gaethje dismissed the allegations as pure coping: “I do think that he created a fake world before, believing he’s unbeatable, invincible. Nobody is f*cking unbeatable or invincible. Updating bios like he won before the fight even happened… it’s the same thing, just as a loser now.”
