Oh, so one of the great fights, one of the great fights that I've ever seen on paper.
You know, you guys will have the same reaction.
You'll see some fight and you'll go, “Whoa!
How'd they get that done?
Who thought to do that?
Wow.”
But it just happened.
I just had that reaction.
Anthony Pettis versus Justin Gaethje, and that is such a fascinating fight for so many
reasons and one, it's a different fight than we have seen Justin Gaethje in.
And as much as everybody loves to watch Justin Gaethje, he largely takes on the same opponent
each time.
He is such a brawler that he largely gets put in there with other brawlers.
Anthony Pettis is the epitomy of a technician.
Anthony Pettis has great strategy, great technique.
He's not a brawler.
He's a fighter.
He's a martial artist.
He's well-thought-out.
He uses a lot of logic, a lot of planning, a lot of strategy.
It's a totally different fight.
He's the opposite of Justin Gaethje, but he's also the opposite in many ways of some of
the other opponents of Justin Gaethje and to say that Justin only gets thrown in there
with other brawlers is a very broad stroke by me, not something that I would mean literal.
But if you do look at Anthony Pettis, I will stand by this part of the strategy as literal
– he is most definitely not a brawler.
He is a technician.
I love the fight.
I don't know if I've seen either of them ever look better, and it's just not a record thing.
So much in this sport goes to records.
I've never seen Justin Gaethje look anything less than fantastic, but I would tell you
the same thing about Anthony Pettis as of late.
I thought that a couple of fights ago versus Michael Chiesa was possibly Pettis’ best
performance of all time, and to make that statement about a guy who's been a world champion
in multiple divisions, multiple organizations, that was on the cover of the Wheaties box,
I think that's a very high praise.
But I also thought that Anthony Pettis looked fantastic against Tony Ferguson.
I'm not certain people are aware of just what a great fight that was, and Pettis had his
moments in that fight.
He stumbled Ferg a couple of times.
Ferg stalked him down, walked him down.
Ferg did his part.
That's Tony Ferguson.
That's a special athlete.
But that was a special fight.
That was a special performance regardless of the outcome for both guys.
So when I saw that fight I will just tell you this, and we will wait for an analysis
as this gets a little bit closer but I do think it gives us something really to look
forward to, but one of the things and my very first question on this fight, and I don’t
have the answer and I don’t think you guys do—I don't think the answer is out yet—is,
is it a main event?
Because while that's main-event-worthy, it would depend on the card that it's on.
If it's on a pay-per-view where they love to put championship fights last, then it wouldn't
be a main event.
But what’s the relevance?
The relevance is, are we talking five rounds or are we talking three?
Because that would change your opinion on the outcome of that fight.
In a three-round fight in there with a technician like Anthony Pettis, nobody’s safe, even
the great Justin Gaethje.
Nobody’s safe.
He will pick and he will move and he will do what he needs to do and he will be very
smart and tactical about it.
In a five-round fight, that's where that brawler in Gaethje can start to change things.
That's where I think that he would have an advantage, if he had energy left.
You know, the one thing about when you fight like Gaethje, that Mike Tyson style, that
come-out-and-crush-you-right-now, bring-an-absolute-storm, look-around-and-generally-everything’s-knocked-down-and-cleared-out-of-your-way—but
when it's not, it's hard to keep that pace up.
I don’t agree with some people that think Justin Gaethje has conditioning issues.
I don’t agree.
I don't think he has any heart, any conditioning, any issues there whatsoever, but he does use
a massive amount of energy that some guys will use that same amount of energy but just
spread it out.
That's one of the reasons Gaethje is so fun to watch.
He is coming out and slamming his foot down on that gas pedal right away and he's going
to go as hard as he can go for as long as he can go.
Sometimes, that can be a problem.
You guys heard Dan Gable on this show a few weeks ago, most decorated coaches of any sport
ever?
He subscribed to that same theory, but he did say something interesting on this show.
He said, “You know, I used to bring that pressure and pace but every now and then I'd
run into a guy that could match the pressure and pace, so over time I had to learn how
to win a match.”
Now, it’s all he said and he left it at that, but if you look into the interpretation
of that what he means is, “At some point, when I have enough points, I don’t have
to beat the other guy anymore.
I just have to beat the clock.”
And I think that that is something where when you look at a Justin Gaethje, and you could
really look at any fighter and see that same thing, but Justin Gaethje gets a very big
spotlight put on him and he's very fun to watch and he's a guy that can move the needle,
and he's a guy whose stock can go up even in defeat and it goes up out of respect to
the efforts that he put in in front of you.
But that doesn’t change the fact that it still begs the question and it's the one and
only one that I have right now, is this a main event?
Is it three or five rounds?