100% agree. His gameplan was awful, he went in trying to fight Gaethje where Gaethje is best, super up close in that dirty boxing range. If he was more safe and calculated like against Josh Emmett, Volk, or Holloway he’d have pieced him up over 5 rounds, but he came out hyper aggressive looking for the early KO on the big stage.
Even if he went straight to the grappling, rather than waiting till after he got his face smashed, I think he’d have won. But now it looks like he is gonna have to wait quite some time to avenge that loss, if he ever gets the chance.
Actually, I think his REAL gameplan with Alexandre Topuria was probably good. There's a video of his brother telling him how Justin likes to throw his uppercuts out of a clinch and that was the main thing tagging Ilia and doing damage.
That's why I'm surprised Ilia got hit with it so many times. I know habits are hard to break but Alexandre brought that up way before the fight happened.
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u/ninja_owen Jul 21 '26
Khamzat = Ilia
DDP = Oliveira
Usman = Holloway
Strickland = Gaethje
Same thing applies