Justin Gaethje ‘100 percent confident’ that Islam Makhachev ‘will not dominate’ Charles Oliveira as some expect
Justin Gaethje believes Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira will be a much closer fight than many think.
Makhachev and Oliveira are set to meet in the main event of UFC 280 on October 22 for the vacant lightweight title. It’s an intriguing matchup but Makhachev is a sizeable favorite ahead of the scrap and many believe he will run through Oliveira. However, for Gaethje, who’s coming off a submission loss to Charles Oliveira back in May, he thinks the fight is a lot closer.
“I’m 100 percent confident that Islam will not dominate Charles, and that’s about it. I think Charles is going to move forward. Islam is going to try, and eventually he might be successful, and if he is, he’ll win,” Gaethje said backstage at UFC 278. “But I don’t see him tiring him out. Even if he takes him down for the first two rounds, I don’t see Charles getting submitted, and I don’t see him being too exhausted to continue to fight the fight that he needs to fight.”
According to Justin Gaethje, he says Charles Oliveira surprised him quite a bit with his striking and power. He says Oliveira hurt him on the feet multiple times which other fighters haven’t done to him.
With that, Gaethje believes on the feet, Oliveira will have a big striking advantage which makes this fight so interesting.
“I think my last fight, Charles was brilliant, and he hurt me often – he hurt me early,” Gaethje said. “Ten seconds in, I was really hurt, and probably four times after that, I felt something I’ve never felt in a cage. It was just one of those fights where it was against adversity the whole time. It was a feeling I’ve never felt. Usually you get hit – call it a buzz, call it a flash. This is more like my tongue just went on a super powerful battery and just my entire body – it was crazy. It was perfect shots, perfect time, one or the other. It was the factors that I faced that night.”
