Justin Gaethje never disappoints.
The UFC Lincoln headliner between Justin Gaethje and James Vick more than lived up to the hype. It was built up as a guaranteed action fight and boy did it deliver.
Former WSOF champion Gaethje (19-2, 2-2 UFC) snapped his two-fight losing streak in the main event. ‘The Highlight’ bounced back from consecutive defeats to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirer by sending Vick (13-2, 9-2 UFC) to the shadow realm in the very first round. The result saw Vick’s impressive win streak snapped at four.
Gaethje threw a left hand which was swiftly followed by a seismic overhand right that crumbled Vick to the canvas. Vick’s legs immediately buckled causing him to fall head first to the ground. He was unconscious before he connected with the Earth. Gaethje landed one more vicious left hand. Just to make sure. The finish came at the 1:27 mark of the opening round.
Vick remained out cold for several moments while Gaethje celebrated the victory. He performed his trademark backflip off the cage before jumping into the crowd. He leapt back into the cage to show his respect to his adversary. However, Vick still wasn’t quite with it. When Gaethje approached him on the stool, he tried to take him down.
'The Highlight' is BACK! pic.twitter.com/ZwerZxfOHK
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) August 26, 2018
Out cold
After the bout, Gaethje was thrilled to get back into the win column. He admitted in the Octagon interview that this 0ne was personal.
“This game is unforgiving. That could easily be me right now. I’m the least fake person in this sport. I take everything personal. I took everything he said personal. And I’m glad I put him to sleep.”
Gaethje confessed to not caring about who he will fight next. Initially, he threw out the name of former interim champion Tony Ferguson. However, ‘El Cucuy’ is already booked to fight former UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis on the undercard of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor. He added that he wanted to fight someone with a higher ranking next.
At the time of writing, only two 155 lbers who aren’t booked are ranked higher than Gaethje – Edson Barboza and Kevin Lee.
