Justin Gaethje Talks Strategy Versus Khabib Nurmagomedov

Stephen A. Smith said that he thought that you guys didn't grapple because you were afraid of Corona. I thought you were joking bro. I thought you were joking. I don't dislike him. No, he said that. And he meant it. No, I thought you were totally joking. I laughed like you didn't go over. He meant it. He did say it. He meant it. He didn't just say it. He fucking meant it. We're literally swapping blood here. Yeah, exactly. Like this is HIV world, hepatitis world. Yes, yes, everything. You name it, you get it. Staff, everything. Everything through blood. But that kind of talk. Stephen A. Smith though, he's a personality. Like that's part of it. He's got hot takes on things. So when he says things. He could have not meant it. He could be as smart as smarter than we think and said it because of the reaction he wanted. It's a fun thing. I said it today. Exactly. Get it, cop it. It's fucking shit. Yeah, it's a lot. Listen, he makes his living that way. We're all talking about him. I mean, that's how he makes his living. He makes his living getting people to talk about some of the things he says. He's a very engaging person. You have to use that in the next interview though. I don't grapple because it's over the business. Yeah. I knew this shit was coming for the last seven years. I hit him so hard because it was scary. He was going to touch me and get that Corona on me. I was trying to keep him six feet back. I think we're on the fight. I think people are like, why didn't he grapple? And a huge factor in the Khabib fight is going to be my feetwork. There was never a spot when he felt comfortable to close the distance. I was constantly too far away and staying off the fence. So that's going to be huge against Khabib. Well, you have the style. I mean, if you wanted to say, okay, what kind of style do you think would work against a guy like Khabib? First of all, a guy was a fantastic defensive wrestler, like you said. And then a guy was a superior striker. Those two things you have. You got to stay off the fence. Yeah. You got to have feetwork. Without the feetwork, you can't stay off the fence. But Khabib's whole game is, you know, he's a great grappler as well. But his whole game is using that grappling in the fight. Against the fence. Yeah. You will not. If he's taking a shot in the open, it's to drive you to the fence to finish the takedown. He's not getting takedowns in the open. Interesting. You go watch all this fights. Right. You're going to see maybe five, a handful, if that, of takedowns in the actual center of the cage. He'll start in the middle, but he's going to push you. It's to push you to the cage and use the cage. It's going to be my feetwork. It's going to be me keeping that distance where he feels slightly uncomfortable. Like when he did go for the M&R, I was just too far. He thought he was close enough, but I was just too far. Right. Well, he was already beaten down. Yeah, that was a point. Yeah, it was. Because he's super sneaky. Like the one he hit on Barbosa was sneaky. But it would have been the same in the first round because of the distance I was keeping. Right. You know, you have to, in order to shoot a double leg, you have to be at a distance in which you feel comfortable. In wrestling, it's always, you know, I shouldn't, unless my head's touching your head, I should never take a shot because I'm too far away. So controlling the distance staying off the fence is going to be the most important thing in the world when it comes to that fight. Now, when are they talking about for that fight? I mean, we got the same manager. So that's kind of crazy whenever we want. Yeah, the same manager. That is kind of crazy. Dude, I did the G, man. So the fight with you and Khabib, you both have the same manager. You're talking about September. Are they saying that with you? That means, so we, again, we both pretty much, we decide, I mean, I hope they have a fucking audience. We don't decide. The UFC is the boss. They will. But you can't make anybody fight. And I'm ready in September. He's ready in September. So it's perfect. Now, I know Vegas is going to at least allow some audiences in July supposedly because I'm at that Park Theater, the one that's right across the street from T-Mobile. I'm there in July for doing a comedy show. It's supposedly going to actually happen. They haven't canceled it. They haven't canceled it. So I'm like, all right, is this real? I saw New Jersey. Hope, right? New Jersey opened up pro sports with an audience. I don't believe so. I don't see that. Yeah, that's huge. You and Khabib, I mean, as much as it was cool to see you and Tony fight with no audience, I kind of want to see him. I mean, as much as I love fighting with no audience, I want them there. The spectacle of that fight. That's such a big fight. Yeah, it's such an experience. It's the biggest challenge of his career. It's the biggest challenge of Khabib's career. It's the biggest challenge of your career. 100%. Yeah. I mean, it's the greatest that what he does. Like, it's again, we can't take anything away from that. When you look at well-rounded fighters, he's well-rounded, but he's great in what he does. And that is like what made Chuck Liddell great. Like he had thunder in his hands and he's brawling brawl. Like you get hit by him, he's great at what he does. And that's what's so exciting is having opportunities to be able to step up. That's what I'm really excited for. I know he's excited for. And again, no one's got to see his wrestling. I met this guy watching him wrestle. What he does was so unique. It's a total different style of wrestling than that. It's hard to train for and it's kind of like a hidden weapon. So I feel like we're bringing something unique into this. I think it's a very unique fight. And it's also Tony was thought to be the biggest threat to that title because Tony is such a good grappler and he's so good on his feet and he fucks people up on his feet. So him fighting you and you stopping him, like you take that spot now and also your style in my opinion is better. Oh, for sure. I mean, the thing about Tony's style is that Tony can fight off of his back. He's not worried about takedowns and he's going to fight that fight with the mindset of being okay on his back. Yeah. That was the that was the thought process. Whereas your thought process is completely different. Being such a great defensive wrestler, but also being the superior striker. Totally. It's a very dangerous fight for could be very dangerous, especially the confidence you must have coming off of that five rounds with Tony. It feels good. I mean, I know how bad those kicks hurt. I, you know, if you if I can touch your calf, I'm not, I'm never kicking above the knee anymore. Really? Only below. No, he will ever. Not on purpose. Not on purpose. Never. Really? It's like the calf kicks so devastating. So devastating. In the clinch, you're going to kick above the knee. Maybe. That's a non-never right? Well, yeah, I'll try to break their knee by hyper sending it. But from the outside, you could fire that different distance. You're so much more safe. And there's so many nerves and ligaments that run through that part that have no protection. Your thigh has, you know, your quad is a big muscle. It's hard to get through your quad to your nerves. You could touch the nerves. That's why, you know, when he said Henry's calf and foot don't hurt, it's because he got kicked in the calf. Yeah. The nerves stop firing. Yeah. Just like my own handler and dog. It's unique. If I can touch, I got to touch the beeb there four times and then he's compromised. Yeah. Once he's compromised, he can't shoot. He can shoot, but he has to have the fence. If he doesn't have the fence, he fucked. There's no fucking way. Yeah. I promise you that. It has to be in the middle. So he can give me, there might be a scramble. He might out scramble me in the middle once or twice, but if he wants to take me out, he's going to have to put me against the fence. Now once they set this fight, you need eight weeks. Is that what you want to get prepared? Yeah. So we're getting close to that, right? We're in June and in just a week or so. Yeah. June, July, August. Yeah. I'm taking, I take 30 days off. But they didn't give you a specific time. I don't know anything. Yeah. Just September. I didn't say it's Fight Island. My manager probably knows more details than I do. Fight Island seems like a fucking thing. There's not a lot. Yeah, it does. I asked what I was thinking. Treasure Island or they opened it up at Treasure Island in Vegas. I didn't see this place on Google map. Oh my gosh. It's like fucking that movie Contact where they zoom in, zoom in close and you see things. I also like, I want to like look at Google map. Yeah. I put a whole bunch of dirt. He won't even tell me. He tells me everything. He won't tell me. I'm where's his fucking island. I don't know. I'm not sure if it's real. Yeah. It might be just saying it just so he could get another day set for his little spot in Vegas and just be like, Oh man, we don't need international fights. It seems like the only option. Yes. Until the US opens back up, you know, you ain't getting visas right now. No, you ain't not getting visas and I don't even know how they're gonna have to fly everybody private to this fucking island. Yeah. I want them to know if I can get back. Right. Yeah. That's the thing, right? Where are you going to land? Your wind bonus includes a flight. If you lose, you got that boat and no ore. You landed in Tijuana and then you have a boat. You got to get to San Diego and then we'll drive you home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.