Trevor Wittman: Justin Gaethje has been capable to continue to keep his ‘most vital weapon hidden’ in advance of UFC 254

Justin Gaethje has revealed a whole lot of distinct skills and attributes in the course of his fighting profession.

He’s absolutely a person of the most remarkable athletes to ever compete in MMA. He brings together halting power on the toes with a tenacious, intense design that has been approximately extremely hard to stop. Gaethje is the grasp of inflicting problems on his opponents, and even considering the two fights he’s lost, neither Eddie Alvarez or Dustin Poirier walked away any where in the vicinity of unscathed after struggling with him.

Regardless of all that, Gaethje’s head coach Trevor Wittman states that the interim champion’s best attribute when likely versus a human wrecking equipment like Khabib Nurmagomedov hasn’t even been observed throughout one of his fights nevertheless.

“I tailor my sport options all over a profession for a championship struggle,” Wittman discussed on Thursday through UFC 254 media working day. “We get the job done on fundamentals from the commencing. One point that I assume that we were capable to do extremely effectively was keep our most important weapon concealed and with Justin Gaethje, he’s a very superior wrestler and he’s acquired a quite exceptional type in wrestling.

“He hasn’t had to use it. All over again, it is incredibly hard to go and recreation program from someone’s wrestling when they have not confirmed it.”

In the guide up to the combat in opposition to Nurmagomedov a great deal has been explained about Gaethje’s earlier wrestling encounter and how that matches up versus the undefeated Russian.

Gaethje was an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Northern Colorado throughout his junior year of higher education. He was greatest regarded for his defensive abilities, which provided being off the floor for any important total of time when scrambling out of lousy positions.

He competed in wrestling until the day came to make the transition to fighting but Gaethje has hardly ever overlooked the basis he designed on those mats.

Although videos exist of Gaethje wrestling in college, he’s rarely ever had to switch to individuals techniques during his struggle career, which makes his fashion of grappling now created for MMA something that Nurmagomedov has under no circumstances seen before.

“I usually contact wrestling the get out of jail card in the combat sport,” Wittman stated. “Because I believe that wrestling is the most dominant situation controlling piece you can have.”

Certainly, Gaethje has practiced his wrestling, countering Nurmagomedov’s takedowns and how to get up off the floor if the battle does strike the flooring.

Wittman totally thinks in Gaethje’s capability to go takedown for takedown against Nurmagomedov, who will virtually surely attempt to carry this combat to the floor early and normally when they clash on Saturday at UFC 254.

That said, Wittman is not underestimating Nurmagomedov or his suffocating design and style that has sent 28 opponents property with a loss when struggling with him.

“I come to feel very good about [Justin’s wrestling] but Khabib is the most effective at what he does,” Wittman mentioned. “It’s not like I’m heading ‘we’re going to go out there and out wrestle him.’ Once more, that’s just a small bonus of what we have. It’s an possibility to go out there and face the ideal and I do believe Khabib, I consider he’s the very best pound-for-pound [fighter]. I have considered that for a extensive period of time. I necessarily mean there is other fighters that set on remarkable fights and you can contemplate them best pound-for-pound and who they’ve confronted and factors like that.

“But it is designs. Who’s the most dependable? When it arrives to currently being steady, which is the crucial to getting wonderful. It is regularity. Khabib is that.”