Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje shocked the world Sunday night on the South Lawn at the White House, dealing out an American Assbeating to Ilia Topuria as a +400 underdog to win the undisputed lightweight championship in the UFC Freedom 250 headliner.
Topuria’s corner called the fight off after the fourth round. The ringside doctor appeared poised to stop it after the third round, but referee Marc Goddard seemingly overruled the doctor.
Gaethje busted Topuria’s face up in the first round, drawing blood from around his right eye less than two minutes into the scrap. Gaethje was landing his jab consistently and blasting the left side of Topuria’s face with powerful right hands.
It was Gaethje’s kind of fight from the start as he set a relentless pace. He was attacking with reckless abandon, throwing uppercuts and hooks that were landing. He partially landed a head kick too.
Topuria was landing as well, particularly with some powerful body shots, but he wasn’t as precise. They went back and forth trading in wild sequences that Gaethje was getting the best of. Between Rounds 1 and 2, there was a ton of swelling under Topuria’s right eye.
Topuria was getting teed off on again early in the second round until he shifted all the momentum by dropping Gaethje with a powerful right hand to the liver with two minutes left. Gaethje was badly hurt and was quickly mounted on the ground.
Topuria got off a few good shots from the top, prompting Gaethje to give up his back, but he somehow wiggled out of several submission attempts in a wild scramble and got to side control. Topuria had gone all out trying to get the finish on the ground, but he was visibly gassed in the final minute of the stanza when he was content to remain on top and catch his breath without offering much offense.
Any momentum Topuria had taken back didn’t extend into Round 3. Both men’s pace had slowed, but Gaethje appeared to be the fresher fighter. He kept connecting while Topuria was seemingly waiting for a second wind to kick in.
With three minutes left in the third, Gaethje landed a massive right hand that stunned Topuria and sounded like a baseball bat to someone’s head. This shot likely broke Topuria’s left orbital bone, and the White House crowd erupted.
Gaethje grabbed Topuria with a front headlock and dragged him down before briefly attempting a D’Arce choke. Blood was dripping from Topuria’s face onto the Octagon canvas. He was in serious trouble but got back to his feet, only to be greeted with a head kick. Then Gaethje landed another combination before getting through with an uppercut.
Gaethje was sensing the finish and throwing bombs. Topuria’s face was absolutely wrecked. He somehow survived the round, but he had absorbed a ton of damage. He told his corner he couldn’t see out of his right eye from his stool ahead of the fourth round.
That’s when the doctor came into the Octagon. After examining Topuria, he seemed to indicate to Goddard that he wanted to call the fight. It turned into an ordeal similar to what happened with Tim Kennedy and Yoel Romero at UFC 178 back in 2014.
As the doctor, Topuria and Goddard debated whether the fight was going to continue, Topuria was essentially given nearly a minute of extra time to recover. Nevertheless, Gaethje remained calm and waited for the situation to play out.
Finally, Goodard made the call for the fight to continue. In that scenario back in 2014, Romero had been badly hurt at the end of Round 2. Then his corner seemed to intentionally spill water all over Romero’s head without toweling him off before the start of Round 3.
The water was also spilled all over the Octagon in his corner. Then they started leaving the cage without taking Romero’s stool. Next, they acted like they couldn’t understand the English being communicated to them to get out of the Octagon.
During this commotion, Romero remained on his stool while Kennedy understandably protested that the fight should be over. Furthermore, the cutman had applied too much Vaseline to a cut over a Romero’s eye, requiring referee John McCarthy to call a cornerman back into the cage to remove the excess grease.
The delay clearly allowed Romero time to recover, and he took full advantage of the situation. He ended up scoring a third-round knockout over Kennedy 58 seconds later.
This could’ve played out in similar fashion, but Gaethje wasn’t having it. This was his night and nobody was denying him UFC gold.
To his credit, Topuria still had heat on his punches in the fourth round and was demonstrating a ton of heart. He even scored a takedown and briefly took mount, but Gaethje was able to escape quickly and get back to his feet.
They kept trading bombs before Topuria went for another takedown. This one was stuffed and they went to the ground. With 10 seconds left, Gaethje stood up and fired a thunderous knee to Topuria’s body. Next, he ripped three big punches to the body before the bell.
Topuria’s body language was bad going back to the corner. As he took a seat on his stool, there was a brief interaction with his brother before his corner said the fight was over.
It was officially ruled as a fourth-round TKO (corner stoppage). Gamblers on ‘over’ 2.5 rounds cashed +185 tickets, while ‘over’ 3.5 rounds garnered a +285 return. Prop bets on Gaethje to win by TKO/KO and to win inside the distance both earned a +500 payout. The prop for Gaethje to win in Round 4 had a 33/1 return at FanDuel.
“I’m from America. 250 years ago we were way bigger than 6-to-1 dogs and look at us thriving now!” Gaethje said in his Octagon interview. “I know that was absolutely legendary because I cannot even believe it.
“My durability, my tenacity and my heart will carry through those first two rounds and nobody can outwork me in round three and especially the championship rounds four and five. I owed him that [body shot late in Round 4] because he hurt me in my liver so bad. Hard work, baby. I am made for these moments. This sport was made for me. I’ve shown you why. I’m the most consistent, most exciting guy that’s ever been in this cage. Unmatched, I’m telling you.”
In the biggest moment of his career on the grandest stage in the sport’s history, Gaethje delivered his most spectacular performance in his last chance to win the undisputed belt. And of course, he added two more fight-night bonuses by winning Fight of the Night and getting a Performance of the Night bonus.
With extra bonus money supplied by World Liberty Financial and Crypto.com, Gaethje collected an extra $825,000 of bonus cash. He’s now won 17 fight-night bonuses in 16 career UFC appearances, including 11 Fight of the Night performances.
Gaethje’s 17 bonuses are the most in UFC lightweight history and the third-most overall. Regardless of what happened Sunday night in Washington D.C., I felt like Gaethje was already the most exciting fighter in the history of the sport.
But now he’s so much more. There’s nothing he hasn’t accomplished. He’s an instant Hall of Famer at the first induction following his eventual retirement, and he’s the man who handed Topuria, who came into the bout wildly overconfident and as the #2 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, his first career loss in brutally violent fashion.
So, the big question now becomes if Gaethje will retire or defend his belt. He told Joe Rogan in the Octagon that he promised his mom he wouldn’t decide Sunday night.
Topuria released a statement Monday, expressing his desire for a rematch. However, in a post-fight interview, Gaethje said he didn’t think Topuria was deserving of an immediate rematch.
“He went straight to the hospital and I’m here with you guys without a scratch on my face,” Gaethje said.
BetOnline opened Topuria as a -250 favorite vs. Gaethje, who was +210 on the comeback if this matchup come to fruition before the end of 2026.
BetOnline also opened Arman Tsarukyan as a -600 ‘chalk’ vs. Gaethje, who was a +450 underdog.
An underdog yet again, huh? If he puts off retirement, Gaethje will be exactly where he feels comfortable and thrives in the ‘dog role.