Hard to Ignore Ferguson-Gaethje at UFC 249
Somewhere on the planet Earth, Tony
Ferguson and Justin
Gaethje are scheduled to face each other for the interim
lightweight title at UFC
249. The scheduled date is April 18 and during a global
pandemic, anything can happen to change that before it actually
occurs. However, while the news is fresh, here are some reasons to
see why this fight can still deliver.
Both Ferguson and Gaethje are equally dangerous and entertaining fighters. Ferguson may have the advantage of a full camp, but there’s something about Gaethje makes him an unsafe fight for anyone that stands across from him in the cage. Every fight Gaethje has had in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been a "Fight of the Night" or "Performance of the Night" worthy outing for the former World Series of Fighting lightweight champ. His losses are to other championship level contenders and were the first of his career.
On top of Ferguson’s full camp, he has a reach advantage given his ectomorph build that comes with a willingness to exchange with most of his opponents. Gaethje only comes at his opponents and these two will likely fire away at one another. The technical advantage may lie with Ferguson as well since the 10th Planet Black belt has been known to attack a lot off his back when taken down. It is not only with constant submissions but slicing elbows when wrapping opponents in the guard.
Gaethje has said in the past that he prefers to feels a sense of fear before a fight and when the announcement was made, he reiterated that sentiment on Twitter saying, "I’m terrified and I f-----' love it!" While he may have more to fear than Ferguson going into a fight while a pandemic is happening, Ferguson is not going to have an easy fight either.
Edward Carbajal serves as the lead MMA analyst for Frontproof Media and holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a brown belt in Ishin Ryu karate. He has covered combat sports since 2014 and has been a fan of MMA since the first UFC. You can follow him on Twitter @Carbazel or at his website TheBlogBoardJungle.com.
Both Ferguson and Gaethje are equally dangerous and entertaining fighters. Ferguson may have the advantage of a full camp, but there’s something about Gaethje makes him an unsafe fight for anyone that stands across from him in the cage. Every fight Gaethje has had in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been a "Fight of the Night" or "Performance of the Night" worthy outing for the former World Series of Fighting lightweight champ. His losses are to other championship level contenders and were the first of his career.
On top of Ferguson’s full camp, he has a reach advantage given his ectomorph build that comes with a willingness to exchange with most of his opponents. Gaethje only comes at his opponents and these two will likely fire away at one another. The technical advantage may lie with Ferguson as well since the 10th Planet Black belt has been known to attack a lot off his back when taken down. It is not only with constant submissions but slicing elbows when wrapping opponents in the guard.
Gaethje has said in the past that he prefers to feels a sense of fear before a fight and when the announcement was made, he reiterated that sentiment on Twitter saying, "I’m terrified and I f-----' love it!" While he may have more to fear than Ferguson going into a fight while a pandemic is happening, Ferguson is not going to have an easy fight either.
Edward Carbajal serves as the lead MMA analyst for Frontproof Media and holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a brown belt in Ishin Ryu karate. He has covered combat sports since 2014 and has been a fan of MMA since the first UFC. You can follow him on Twitter @Carbazel or at his website TheBlogBoardJungle.com.
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