Justin Gaethje Reveals Policy for Backflip Celebration

Justin
Gaethje doesn’t celebrate every win with a backflip. 

While Gaethje (27-5) rarely lands perfectly, his backflip
celebrations after his wins have become a part of MMA lore.
However, Gaethje didn’t do a backflip after winning the interim
lightweight title with a beatdown of Paddy
Pimblett at UFC 324
last month. 

Gaethje recently revealed that his backflip celebrations are only reserved for knockout
wins. Gaethje has only broken his policy once and celebrated with a
backflip without knocking someone out. Gaethje explains that a
knockout gives him a surge of emotions that he needs to vent with a
backflip. Gaethje is now expected to fight lightweight champion
Ilia
Topuria in a title unifier. “The Highlight” hopes to fight
Topuria at the White House in June and backflip on the White House
lawn after knocking him out.

A Rush of Emotions

“It’s pretty much my only rule – I’ve only done it once outside of
knocking somebody out,” Gaethje told Mark McClune. “If I knock
somebody out, then the rush of emotions is too much, where I have
to flip off something. But if you don’t get that knockout, there
really isn’t a spike of emotion. So I sure hope to knock [Topuria] out, and I sure hope to do a backflip on the White House lawn. That
would be absolutely spectacular.”