Justin Gaeth: How an outstanding young wrestler became the UFC's leading kn

On May 8, in the main event of UFC 274, Justin Gaethje will try to take the lightweight title from Charles Oliveira.

Read about Justin Gaethje, the fased Khabib Nurmagomedov in his last fight so spectacularly, in our story.

Born in late fall of 1988 in American Arizona, Justin loved sports since childhood. He went into wrestling, made serious progress and had excellent prospects.

Some even thought that in time Gaethje would grow up to the Olympics. Not for nothing, even as a college student, he was already on the list of the best wrestlers in America.

But Justin suddenly decided that he lacked adrenaline in wrestling, and began to engage in mixed martial arts. On August 20, 2011 he debuted in MMA, though he was predicted to be defeated in the first round because of the lack of experience. But Gaethje himself knocked out his opponent Kevin Crum before the end of the first round.

The fight was three-plus years in the making for his first championship belt. It was the WSOF lightweight championship after defeating Richard Petisnock in 2014.

It took another three years for Gaethje to make it to the UFC. And here he took it from the get-go, knocking out Michael Johnson in his first fight and in the first round.

His fighting style was and still is astonishing. A natural born fighter, he does not try to take his opponent down, preferring to act energetically in the standup and possessing one of the most crushing knockout punches in the promotion.

The happiest day so far in Gagee's career was May 9, 2020, when he knocked out the clear favorite to fight Tony Ferguson in the fifth round and become the interim UFC lightweight champion.

On October 24 of the same year, he was eager to defeat the undefeated Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov, but lost to the latter just in the fight. Khabib strangled his opponent in the second round and that, by the way, was the end of his career.

But Gaethje doesn't even think about stopping. At the same time the athlete graduated from the university and became a bachelor in humanities and social sciences.

But this humanitarian has twenty-three wins and three losses in the octagon. And practically always he prefers to fight in a stand-up position which many of his rivals never expected from the wrestler.

And only falling to the floor after another devastating blow they began to realize that Gagee, though a humanitarian by education, would be a real professor of absolutely different sciences in the octagon.

Nevertheless, the fighter's fate could have turned out differently. At one time he suffered from hyperopia, had long treatment and on one eye almost became blind.

And his diploma he got for a reason, hoping to become a social worker to help troubled teens.

So far, Justin remains a difficult opponent for any fighter. And on May 8, Charles Oliveira is going to have a tough time defending his UFC lightweight title. We look forward to the outcome....