News Edson Barboza vs Justin Gaethje official for UFC Philly on March 30th

[BooBoyMan]

Give Gaethje Al, if he wants Al

al doesn't wanna fight gaethje, even though that'd be a fun-ass fight to watch. skip to 3:16


he's tryna fight someone in the top 5. al vs conor/poirier would be just as fun to watch as al/gaethje, imo

 

[YOLOGOGOPLATA]

The battle of the leg kicks. Let's see who walks out of the octagon.

 

[cambo78]

 

[LoadedZeus]

I want a leg kick battle.

You know what? You actually got me a bit more excited lol I completely forgot the fact that gaethje and barboza are by far the best leg kickers in the ufc, everyone would say the same for active fighters.... Its either going to bonkers or very painful to watch

 

[bjpenngoat]

This fight is going into deep waters and gaethje will finish edson.

 

[Chad W]

the only safe prediction is that at least one of these guys if not both will be staying that saturday night in the hospital

 

[AndyHugMercury]

Barboza will KO Homer Simpson

 

[VIPERdude]

Ohhhhh buddy, bring on the violence.

To quote a buddy of mine, "that's fight porn."

I think it can go either way but I will lean towards Justin in this fight because Barboza NEEDS space to throw his best stuff and Gaethje is an expert at taking away that space. Edson doesnt do well with pressure and Justin is great at covering up and going at you with lots of pressure. I see Justin low leg kicks and body shots all night while Barboza trys to establish distance and not having any chance to reset.
Thinking more about it, I feel Justin Gaethje will win this fight AND if he can do it in a dramatic fashion like he did with Vick it maybe actually put him a fight or 2 away from a title opportunity. Loses to Eddie and Poirier are not bad losses. Eddie left UFC and Gaethje vs Al Iquinta would be fun.

Hey, maybe shock the mma world and mix in a little of his division 1 wrestling skills in this fight to wear Edson down a bit in early rounds...the TD WILL BE THERE this is Justins fight to lose IMO

 

[robbie]

* Great Match-Up? Yes
* Fight of the Year Candidate? Yes
* Violent? Yes
* Leg Kicks? Hell Yes
* Will I Watch Live: Yes

 

[93confirmed]

We’ve already seen two of those in the past I believe

I've seen a couple but not in UFC.

Sauce?

 

[ScarfaceJr]

Someone's chin is gonna be fully cracked.

My money's on justin's chin to get shattered.

 

[ScarfaceJr]

The worst mistake Gaethje could make is to decide to have a leg kick war with Edson Barboza.

Barboza's last opponent tried that. I was honestly shocked.

 

[LikeItIs]

It's rare these days that I get a war boner from fight announcements.

This one did it.

 

[ExitLUPin]

2 best kickers in the division but completely different styles of it. Another FOTY caliber type fight for Gaethje

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Gaethje KO’s this glass jaw, neither will EVER fight for the belt though. Battle of the gatekeepers.

 

[legkicktko]

Barboza's last opponent tried that. I was honestly shocked.

To be fair, most of the forum was convinced Hooker was a better striker than Edson. Before the fight most people through hooker could soundly outstrike him.

Even jack slack wrote a piece about how Hookers game was dismantling strikers and how he was likely to be the first to be Edson at his own game.

 

[ScarfaceJr]

To be fair, most of the forum was convinced Hooker was a better striker than Edson. Before the fight most people through hooker could soundly outstrike him.

Even jack slack wrote a piece about how Hookers game was dismantling strikers and how he was likely to be the first to be Edson at his own game.

 

[Two-HeadedSexBeast]

Gaethjes legs got destroyed by Poirier if I remember correctly, he relies too much on his durability for some reason. With a similar game plan Edson will take him out within two

What the fuck are you talking about?

 

[legkicktko]

Yeah I know right.

But in retrospect its easy to see how Hooker could buy into his own skills that far. Remember even Adesanya had said that the gym had to dumb down their skills to prepare Hooker for Edson and the forum ate that shit up like it was true.

 

[legkicktko]

Gaethje didn't move forward in a straight line against Vick, he did really good cutting off the cage then blasting him and Barboza has trouble with pressure. Either guy can win this but whoever can dictate the range will have a big advantage.

Yeah fair points.

If you're reasoning Gaethje to win, you definitely have to say Barboza is susceptible to pressure. Who knows, Justin might also want to dust off his wrestling shoes to give edson more to think about.

If you want to see it for Edson, there are reasons as well. He is susceptible to pressure but Gaethje is less tricky than the guys who have had success against him in the past. There have been guys like Melendez for example who pressured Barboza a lot but didn't threaten enough with the TD to make him uncomfortable. Melendez got lit the fuck up in the close range, despite looking sharp early and pressure hard. Gaethje is really prone to eating big, clean shots. That's basically his M.O, even against less talented strikers.

I think the x-factor is how well can Gaethje take cleans shots from Edson. Unless he pulls out another quick knockout (which is entirely possible), you can almost bet Edson is going to tag him a lot. What worried me about Gaethje against Vick (I was rooting hard for justin) was that Vick kicked him in the first 30 seconds and it seemed to hurt Justin a lot but Vick didn't notice. He addressed after that he was hurt bad to the body from that kick. He is battle worn you know. He's been stopped by strikes in 2 of his last three and rocked and dropped in 5 of his last 6.

Edson took a ton of damage from Khabib and Lee as well but at least against Hooker he showed no signs of residual effect. At least in my opinion. I don't know if you agree.