Outside Source
Interim lightweight champion Gaethje will challenge the champion Topuria in a title unifier in the main event at UFC White House on June 14. A former training partner of Topuria, Masvidal has always lauded the undefeated Georgian-Spaniard’s skillset and power. Masvidal believes “El Matador” will hand Gaethje a beating that he won’t be able to recover from. “Gamebred” predicts that Topuria will retire Gaethje at the White House in June.
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Ilia Flatlines Him
“I think Ilia does Gaethje worse… I’ve trained with Ilia plenty,” Masvidal said on the “Death Row MMA” podcast. “Since his first UFC fight, I’ve been calling it, ‘This guy’s gonna be champ.’ He’s gonna beat the f—-ing brakes off [Gaethje]. He retires Homer Simpson that day in the f—-ing cage. He’ll never come back fighting that dude. Homer Simpson is not walking out of that alive. I think [Ilia] just flatlines him.”
Topuria (17-0) won the featherweight title by knocking out Alexander Volkaovski in 2024. Topuria defended his title by handing Max Holloway the lone knockout loss of his career. Topuria then moved up to lightweight and knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant title last year.
Meanwhile, Gaethje is 4-1 in his last five, with the loss coming in a brutal beatdown against Holloway. Gaethje (27-5) has since rebounded with decision wins over Rafael Fiziev and Paddy Pimblett. While Gaethje landed substantial damage on Pimblett to win the interim lightweight title this past January, it wasn’t considered the most technical performance. Gaethje has opened as a +425 underdog against Topuria, a -600 favorite.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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