UFC 254 Khabib vs. Gaethje Recap
3 min readOct 28, 2020
- I grew up playing hockey, but I believe the point of wrestling is to put your opponent on their back. When you do this, the match is over. Or at least this is what I gathered from my days of watching Stone Cold Steve Austin smash celebratory oat sodas up on the turnbuckle. Justin Gaethje is a credentialed collegiate wrestler, but apparently, everyone forgot that Gaethje doesn’t know any of the jiu jitsu. Once Khabib took Gaethje down, he might as well have been fighting me.
- Khabib’s retirement and request to be ranked the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world has sprung spirited online debate amongst fight fans about who the GOAT is. TFG has been known to get his panties in a bunch and defend the online message board honor of his favorite fighters (Stipe, Polish Power, RDA, Tony Ferguson, Charles Oliveira etc), but I don’t have a dog in this fight. Khabib, Bones Jones, GSP, Anderson Silva and Fedor are probably the popular 5, but you know who TFG’s #1 pound for pound fighter is?…The baddest man on the planet, Stipe “Immigrant Mentality” Miocic. Stipe wins in a fight against every candidate on the GOAT list. That’s my #1 pound for pound GOAT fighter, the dude who would win the fight.
- Can The UFC knock it off with these live tweets during the fights. I missed the first Cutebala knockdown because I was reading what David Spade had to say. Who’s in the UFC production room thinking, “You know what fight fans need…more David Spade.” I feel like Dave Chapelle’s bit about worshiping celebrities is appropriate here.
- With Khabib’s retirement, we are left with a good old fashioned sausage festival to determine the next lightweight champion. Justin Gaethje, Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson, Dan Hooker, and Charles Oliveira all deserve to be considered in the inevitable makeshift grand prix tournament. It looks like Conor is going to fight Dustin in January for the vacant title. Tony Ferguson is arguably the greatest lightweight of all time. He was scheduled to fight Khabib for the 5th time and a global pandemic broke out. Khabib decided to go home and hide behind the iron curtain, while Tony accepted a late replacement fight, Justin Gaethje. Gaethje ended Tony’s 12 fight win streak to win the interim belt. I would like to see Tony Ferguson get Justin Gaethje again, this time with time to prepare in a number 1 contender fight. 155 lbs is wide open and is going to be awesome in the next couple of months. Guys like Diego Ferreira are deserving, Beneil Dariush is on fire, Islam Makhachev is waiting in the wings, Drew Dober has been impressive, we may see the return of Paul Felder, maybe my boy RDA makes a run and lets not forget the Armenian, Arman Tsarukyan. 2021 is going to be dope but I don’t believe Khabib stays retired. Dana wants that Conor vs. Khabib 2 too bad for Khabib to hang it up.
- Who is Michael Chandler? This dickhead is showing up taking interviews in Abu Dhabi with a $120 Coop Roberts haircut, and has the gall to claim he’s next in line for the 155 lbs strap? Back of the line Bellator Bellamy. Paul Felder vs. Michael Chandler.
