Justin Gaethje Quotes

I don't know how to do takedowns.

Wrestling is different than MMA or boxing or really any other contact sport in that you can't really draw along an opponent.

I'm a wrestler, a very polished wrestler and some of my best attributes in wrestling are my scrambling ability and my clinch.

When I grab guys in the clinch, it's very tough for them to get away and I'm pretty good with my Greco takedown.

The Italians are very strong defensively. They showed in Euro 2000 how good defensively they are.

You watch Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight, Floyd can just throw a few punches, or he can do a lot of defense; he can slip a few punches, let Conor get a few shots in. You can't really do that in wrestling without getting scored on or putting yourself at risk.

I was never an upper body wrestler. I am a shooter.

One element of wrestling that I know what I grew up with we put a lot of emphasis towards was the takedown. But, you could win an Olympic championship and never score a takedown, and I don't know if MMA fans are even aware of that.

Before going to developmental, I had next to no fundamentals and that was sort of, doing cool chain wrestling and using a lot of holds and stuff.

I know I have great grappling myself, and I know how I do with submissions.

I've been working on wrestling aside from MMA. That is something that I wasn't doing in the past so I'm getting more confident in my wrestling. I learned that I didn't know a lot about takedowns, it's a really big gap and I'm catching up and learning a lot.

I work on armbars, triangles, anaconda chokes, guillotines and rear-naked chokes. Basic, simple stuff. I just wanna go there and win the fight, I don't wanna invent too much and try doing fancy things.

Wrestling is such a competitive sport worldwide.

Kevin Lee is really tough. He has some flaws in his game that we can work with. I think he mixes up his boxing and his wrestling really well. He takes you down, he unleashes some strong ground and pound. However, he usually starts a round strong and then starts to fade. In five rounds, I think I can take an advantage of that.

My view on wrestling in MMA is changed a lot since I started really doing it.

It's MMA - anything can happen. You can throw a punch from one knee, a punch from anywhere.

I feel like I've improved immensely in terms of my defending, not only in one-versus-ones but also with my positioning.

Wrestling is second nature: I've been doing it for so long, so if it looks like someone's leg is available, it made sense for my first three fights that I would shoot for legs.

I'm not the strongest, I'm not this amazing wrestler, but I believe the skills I've honed over a period of time - my stand up, my takedown defence, the way I position myself on the ground - I just believe I can be the full package.

In wrestling, when I was in high school, my coach said you should be able to hit every single move from any position. So, arm drag to double-leg, snap-down to double-leg. You should be able to hit a move from anywhere, so with my armbar, I can essentially hit it from any position because it's my favorite submission.

I know Cormier is a wrestler so you really got to get them hips down on him so I've been working them hips really good.

My strength is my wrestling, but I don't focus on it as much. I try to focus on a lot of different things like knees, elbows, submissions, and submission defense - just a lot of different things.

I've trained with real, world-class wrestlers.

If you stay in the guard and control the hips and flatten him out, you can control him. And that was the start of ground-and-pound.

I like ground and pound; I don't know if it is like a technique or discipline. I like to be on the ground, but I don't necessarily go for submissions or anything.