Train collision? No, that was Justin Gaethje! See what Rafael Fiziev’s face looked like after his war with The Highlight

Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje showed another crazy war at the UFC 286 event. Rafael Fiziev wanted to take him on in the standup, but ended up spending a few moments in the hospital. Check out what his face looked like after their fight.

Justin Gaethje put on another crazy war at UFC 286

UFC 286 is over and the O2 Arena in London saw plenty of interesting moments. The spotlight naturally went to the main title fight in the Welterweight trilogy, with Leon Edwards defending his championship belt with a perfect performance to counter the pressure from Kamaru Usman.

However, overshadowing the main event was Justin Gaethje fighting in the final run for the lightweight title, which always offers electrifying, blood-filled fights. This time was no different and his hard shots were taken away by the tank from Azerbaijan, Rafael Fiziev.

The latter has ridden the UFC on a streak of six wins in a row and has known only one defeat in his career, when he fell short to Magomed Mustafaev in 2019. The division’s number six and KO machine was thus looking to climb Gaethje towards the top of the division.

It was Gaethje who announced his latest assault on the division championship belt after failing twice in title fights. First, his hard shots were stopped by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the last fight of his stellar career. Only to then get choked out by Charles Oliveira last May after he was knocked down twice.

He achieved a crazy record, his opponent will spend some time in hospital

So Fiziev and Gaethje’s fight was expected to be chippy from the start, and the clash of stand-ups delivered exactly what MMA fans expected. Both men went all out from the opening bell, with Fiziev showing tremendous speed to earn the first round.

Even so, he developed a swelling near his right eye that only grew as the fight progressed. The second round saw Gaethje patiently punching his opponent out of the retreat and Fiziev went into the final round with a significant gash on his cheek.

It then exploded in the third round, where Gaethje landed the hardest punches, making Fiziev’s face look like it had collided with a train after the fight. So the fight went to the judges on points, who ruled Gaethje a close win.

He appreciated the qualities of his opponent after another crazy shootout. However, he pointed out his skills and is already looking forward to the next fight. “I think we are both made of the same dough. His body kicks were not effective, while I did a great job today,” he said at the post-match press conference.

“I fought like an idiot with Oliveira, so I would love a rematch. A rematch with Poirier would also be a possibility,” aware that he needs one more win to win another title fight.

His performance earned Justin the bonus for the best fight of the night, reaching a historic milestone. In fact, in his 11 UFC fights, he’s earned a bonus in each of them, something no one in the UFC has ever done.

Source: UFC, Sherdog, MMA Junkie, Twitter accounts – Inncursion and Jake