{"id":38148,"date":"2026-05-09T17:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Justin-Gaethje-ranks-Ilia-Topuria-as-secondtoughest-matchup-of-career-201117"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:20:39","slug":"justin-gaethje-ranks-ilia-topuria-as-second-toughest-matchup-of-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/justin-gaethje-ranks-ilia-topuria-as-second-toughest-matchup-of-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje ranks Ilia Topuria as second-toughest matchup of career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> believes he has faced a tougher opponent than Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gaethje (27-5) will try to unify the title against the champion
\nTopuria (17-0) at
\nUFC White House<\/a> on June 14. Topuria is currently on murderous
\nstreak with knockouts over Alexander
\nVolkanovski<\/a>, Max
\nHolloway<\/a> and Charles
\nOliveira<\/a>. However, Gaethje has made a career out of fighting
\nlightweight legends. Gaethje believes he has faced a tougher
\nopponent than Topuria in Khabib
\nNurmagomedov<\/a>. However, Gaethje gives Topuria his flowers for
\nhis knockout streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is my second toughest test ever, next to Khabib,\u201d
\nGaethje said at the UFC White House press conference<\/a>. \u201cBut yeah,
\nthose three knockouts: Volkanovski, Holloway, Oliveira \u2014 legendary.
\nSo it\u2019s just gonna make this win that much more
\nspectacular.\u201d <\/p>\n

Putting It All on the Line<\/h2>\n

Gaethje was also the interim champion when he made his first title
\nbid against Nurmagomedov in 2020, suffering a second-round
\nsubmission loss. \u201cThe Highlight\u201d made his second failed title bid
\nagainst Charles
\nOliveira<\/a> in 2022, suffering a first-round submission loss.
\nConsidering this will be Gaethje\u2019s last title shot, the 37-year-old
\nis ready to go out all guns blazing, regardless of the
\noutcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so ready to put it on the line,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t give a f\u2014k
\nif he beats me, doesn\u2019t beat me, it doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m coming in
\nthere and I\u2019m gonna try to knock this motherf\u2014-r. I\u2019ll be throwing
\nmissiles on the White House lawn on June 14.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“I will be throwing missiles on the White
\nHouse lawn on June 14.” – @Justin_Gaethje<\/a>
\npic.twitter.com\/EuPF33wQUG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC on Paramount+ (@UFConParamount)
\nMay 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Gaethje believes he has faced a tougher opponent than Ilia Topuria.  Gaethje (27-5) will try to unify the title against the champion Topuria (17-0) at UFC White House on June 14. Topuria is currently on murderous streak with knockouts over Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira. However, Gaethje has made a career out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}