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Although Justin Gaethje probably put up the best performance of his career against Tony Ferguson in the headliner of UFC 249, he didn't come out of the fight completely unscathed. Ferguson connected flush with a nasty uppercut at the fag end of the second round and Gaethje was clearly rocked, and one might even say, saved by the bell.
However, Gaethje recovered from the setback in the second round to dominate Ferguson throughout the rest of the five-round fight, finishing "El Cucuy" in the last round to claim the interim UFC lightweight title and setting himself a date with reigning champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for a title unification bout later this year.
"False confidence won't lead you anywhere", Gaethje tells Ferguson
At UFC’s post-fight press conference, Gaethje was asked to comment on Ferguson saying that he was "sucking air" at the end of round two, and "The Highlight" was quick to rubbish such thoughts, saying that Ferguson was trying to garner some "false confidence" in order to pump himself up for the fight.
“I didn’t hear it, but it sounds like false confidence. False confidence ain’t going to get you anywhere in there. He’s trying to psyche himself up. He knew he was in trouble. He’d just caught me with a good one, so maybe he thought I would quit. But he found out really fast that there’s no quit in me. He’d be a fool to think that I would.”
This was Gaethje’s fourth win on the trot and the power punching lightweight now has nine fight of the night bonuses in seven fights inside the Octagon.
