A pair of disappointing losses he suffered are the primary reason that Justin Gaethje became the UFC’s interim lightweight champion on Saturday in the main event of UFC 249 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
Gaethje was knocked out with a knee by Eddie Alvarez on Dec. 2, 2017, and stopped on strikes by Dustin Poirier in his next bout on April 14, 2018.
A little more than two years after that second consecutive loss, Gaethje put the lessons he learned all together and dominated Tony Ferguson in an astonishingly brilliant performance.