Gaethje wants shot at lightweight title after destructive second-round KO of Poirier

The veterans were meeting for the second time, with 'The Diamond' having powered his way through their 2018 clash on his path towards interim gold

By Agencies

Published: Sun 30 Jul 2023, 1:06 PM

American MMA fighter Justin Gaethje knocked out Dustin Poirier with a deadly leg kick to the head to win their rematch at UFC 291 on Saturday night.

Five years after suffering a TKO loss to Poirier Gaethji looked a completely transformed ighter attacking his opponents lead leg and throwing combinations witht pin point accuracy in the main event at the Delta Center arena in Salt Lake City, on Sunday.

After connecting with a powerful straight right, Gaethje followed up with with a clean head kickearly in Round 2 to shut Poirier's lights out.

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"I'm very grateful because normally life doesn't give rematches," said the fighter, who left his record at 25-4 with 20 KOs.

In his six years in the promotion, “The Highlight” has won three “Fight of the Year” awards, including one for his first battle with Poirier in 2018.

On one of the biggest nights of his career, The Highlight began to measure his chances right from the first round using kicks to damage Poirier's right leg.

But Poirier's experience helped him get through the first round without any problems.

But that was about to change.

Gaethje went for volume from the start and worked Poirier smartly, showing the experience he had gained since the last time they met .

At the end of the first round, Gaethje's corner congratulated him on the "beautiful chaos" he was creating in the middle of the octagon and injected energy into the fighter to go out and solve the puzzle in front of him.

The outcome came at 3:57 minutes of the second round when Gaethje landed an emphatic straight left that went in without a problem, and without giving Gaethje a chance to settle he landed a left kick that went in between the neck and chin without a problem.

This match-up pitted two of the UFC's best lightweights of the moment against each other, but it was Justin Gaethje who prevailed in the war.

Gaethje says he wants to fight for the lightweight title against the winner of the Islam Makhachev - Charles Oliveira rematch.

He says some more stuff about working hard and how thankful he is, then he watches the finish. "It's so crazy. I surprised myself."

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Elsewhere on the 11 fight card Tony Ferguson slumped to a sixth straight loss as he was choked out by Bobby Green after Kevin Holland had stunned fans with a submission win of his own against Michael Chiesa.

In the co-main event as Alex Pereira defeate4d Jan Blachowicz in his 205lb debut. The pair are the only two men to ever defeat Israel Adesanya in the UFC octagon,