Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t expect Justin Gaethje to back down from Ilia Topuria.
Lightweight champion Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) unifies his belt against interim champ Gaethje (27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 (Paramount+) main event at the White House in Washington.
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Former UFC middleweight champion Du Plessis advises Gaethje against trading aggressively in the pocket with Topuria, but instead look to break him down with his kicks.
“I think Ilia Topuria is the biggest star in the sport right now, and rightfully so,” Du Plessis said on Fight Forecast. “What he’s been able to do is incredible. I’m a massive fan of his fight style because he doesn’t just win, he does it spectacularly in ways that those people have never been won before, which is incredible. But Justin Gaethje, in my top five, top three even, favorite fighters to watch fight. I mean, that guy’s never been in a boring fight in his whole life, and he doesn’t have the capability of being in one because that’s how he fights. He goes out to kill. People wrote him off against Paddy Pimblett. … This man is a fighter by heart. He’s been doing it since he was five years old, being involved in combat sports. He knows what it’s about. He has faced adversity. He has been in the wars.
“Every fight he’s been in is probably a war, but you know, he just has that thing about him that he doesn’t care. He’s not scared. He’s not scared of Ilia Topuria. He’s not naive about it. You can’t go fight Ilia Topuria the way you fight a lot of these other fights where he just goes crazy. Ilia is too calculated and he hits too hard. I believe Ilia has a lot better grappling and wrestling. Gaethje is going to have to set up that – I believe his key to victory would be those leg kicks. He has devastating leg kicks. He has that head kick, we saw that against Dustin Poirier. Ilia has been dropped with head kicks a couple of times in his career before. So, using those kicks, setting up, but not standing and banging in that pocket. That is not going to be his answer. Setting up that knockout shot, that is going to be it, and just overwhelming him with that pressure that he does.”
Gaethje is facing an uphill battle according to the oddsmakers. According to FanDuel, “The Highlight” enters fight week as a +430 underdog against former two-division UFC champ Topuria, who is a -670 favorite.
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“I’m such a big Gaethje fan, but Ilia is going to win this fight,” Du Plessis said.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dricus Du Plessis: Justin Gaethje ‘not scared of Ilia Topuria’
