Gaethje has had significant vision problems for a good part of his career, and now he’ll be fighting for a UFC title. What’s his story?

Justin Gaethje is one of the best lightweight fighters in the UFC and certainly one of the most attractive. His fights are simply entertaining, but apparently not his opponents. Moreover, in May he will once again try to win the championship belt of the world’s best organization. But how did he get into MMA and what is his journey?

Gaethje started in combat sports at an early age

Justin Gaethje has an interesting family background. His mother is Mexican, his father has German roots for a change. His grandfather, who served in the US army and was a boxer, was not far from martial arts.

Gaethje himself took up martial arts at the age of 4 when he was an active wrestler. In high school, he achieved an outstanding record of 191 wins and only 9 losses. At the University of Colorado, he even secured a place in the hall of fame of the local wrestling team.

Although Gaethje took up wrestling, he was never a troublemaker and never wrestled. He only made one exception when he stood up for a bullied student at a party while he was at the university.

It is also interesting to note that in college wrestling, Gaethje wrestled against the late Olympic champion and one of the best wrestlers of our time, Jordan Burroughs. He narrowly lost the match.

Gaethje and MMA

Justin Gaethje didn’t begin to pursue MMA until university. Between 2008 and 2011 he managed 7 amateur fights and won all of them, only one ending on points. He showed interesting potential and turned professional in 2011.

Two years later, when he already had 7 wins among the pros, he signed with the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) organization, where he soon became one of the main stars and quickly became a champion. He was able to defend his title 5 times. He never lost a single time in the organization and scored 10 wins.

After that, in 2017, Gaethje already signed with the famous UFC organization, defeating Michael Johnson in his first fight. However, after that, he also knew the taste of defeat, losing twice in a row.

But after that, he went on a winning streak, beating names like Edson Barboza, Donald Cerrone and the legendary Tony Ferguson, whom he literally destroyed. His win over Ferguson made him the interim champion, and he then faced Khabib Nurmagomedov for the title. But he lost in the second round.

He then took a year off and beat Michael Chandler on points in one of the best fights of 2021, which will see him fight Charles Oliveira for the title in May.

Gaethje’s style

As mentioned, Justin Gaethje was literally addicted to wrestling. One would expect him to take advantage of this and bully his opponents with his wrestling skills. But it’s quite the opposite. The American uses virtually no wrestling at all and keeps his matches strictly standing.

Gaethje is one of the most attractive fighters, his matches are always a joy to watch. Besides the fact that he can throw a lot of hard punches, he can also take a lot himself.

The attractiveness of Gaetje’s fights is perfectly evidenced by the fact that in the 9 fights he has had in the UFC, he has won 7 performance or fight of the night bonuses.

Gaethje hasn’t had it all that easy

Justin Gaethje is one of the best fighters in the world right now. However, he had to work his way up to his position. Before he went to college, he worked in a copper mine where he worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. He took one day off in 3 months to make up for his sleep deprivation.

When he left the mine to attend the University of Colorado, his work colleagues scoffed at his dream of becoming an MMA fighter. Apparently, now he can laugh.

But that wasn’t the only problem Gaethje faced. For a good part of his career, the American fighter had vision problems. His vision was poor, and he saw differently in each eye, with one seeing better at a distance, and the other seeing better at close range. This, of course, caused him great problems.

As he himself admitted, in order to be able to wrestle at all, he always had to touch his opponent in order to judge the distance between him and his opponent. After his debut in the UFC, he underwent surgery, thanks to which he can now see perfectly.

Source: UFC, Sherdog, MMA Fighting, ESPN