UFC 249: Justin Gaethje expects to go to ‘dark place’ vs Tony Ferguson – ‘pure hell, pure fury’
- Gaethje says he’s been ‘subconsciously training’ for world title opportunity since January
- ‘I know what I have in front of me … MMA was defined by a fight like me and Tony’
Justin Gaethje is under no illusion about what taking a fight against Tony Ferguson on short notice entails.
“I know what I have in front of me,” he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “Tony Ferguson lives in dark places. He’s gonna take me to a dark place. MMA was defined by a fight like me and Tony Ferguson.”
“The Highlight” has been drafted in as a late replacement at UFC 249 for lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is stranded in Russia amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The interim lightweight title will be on line next weekend, after the UFC finally found a new location for the event – reportedly the Tachi Palace Casino Resort on Native American land in Northern California.
Gaethje spoke to his head coach Trevor Witmann after being asked to step in by the UFC, and slept on the decision. It helped he had been training hard since January, sparring with teammates Austin Hubbard and Neil Magny to prepare them for their fights at UFC 248 in Las Vegas, with the belief he could be called up – not an unfounded hunch, given Khabib vs Ferguson had already fallen through four times.
“I was going into practice with that mindset,” he said. “I’m very thankful it was somewhere in the back of my head this was a possibility. I do feel I’ve been subconsciously training for something like this.