Ever since they first locked Justin Gaethje inside of a cage with another human, he’s always gone 120 in a 35, as if he couldn’t wait to get out of there.
He reveled in the violence of mixed martial arts, even if he was the one taking the kicks, punches, elbows, knees and chokes. He couldn’t get enough of it, he told us, and he swarmed his opponent with a frenetic energy like a hungry lion who just happened upon a gazelle.
It seemed that nothing could change his style; certainly not the threat of a broken nose or, God forbid, the onset of traumatic brain injury later in the life.