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What's the story?
UFC Lightweight James Vick, who is scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 135 opposite Justin Gaethje, clearly doesn't think too highly of his next opponent.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, Vick put Gaethje on blast for his damage-absorbing fighting style and sounded confident that their fight won't go past the first two rounds.
In case you didn't know...
Number 9 ranked James Vick is coming off a four fight win streak and has won an incredibly impressive 9 out of his last 10 fights in the UFC. Justin Gaethje, on the other hand, is 1-2 in his 3 UFC fights - despite managing a combined total of four performance or fight of the night bonuses in that stretch.
However, while he does put on very entertaining fights, Gaethje does tend to absorb an insane amount of damage - an aspect of his game that has landed him in trouble in his previous two fights against Eddie Alvarez and Justin Poirier.
The heart of the matter
James Vick doesn't think that Gaethje's style will hold up against him for long, labelling him a 'human punching bag' who's only built his reputation off fighting non-UFC level competition all his career.
“He’s a frickin’ human punching bag who’s padded his record against B-level competition outside of this organization, and then he comes into the UFC and gets his ass whooped
This fight ain’t going 25 minutes, guys.
He’s just going to come in and take his beating. This fight probably isn’t going to last two rounds.
Vick and Gaethje have also gone back and forth on social media over the past few days. It's quite clear that they don't like each other - this despite Vick admitting that he would love to see Gaethje throw down if he was just a fan.
What's next?
The fight headlines the UFC Fight Night 135 card in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 25th. Some of the other fights on the card include Mickey Gall vs George Sullivan and Michael Johnson vs Andre Fili.
