{"id":29880,"date":"2026-09-26T06:12:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=29880"},"modified":"2026-09-26T06:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:12:05","slug":"justin-gaethje-believes-ilia-topuria-is-undersized-for-lightweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/?p=29880","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje believes Ilia Topuria is undersized for lightweight division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-label\">Trending:<\/span><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-border\"\/><span class=\"exactmetrics-inline-popular-posts-border-2\"\/>Paddy Pimblett provides an update on his next UFC fight<span class=\"photo-credit\">Zuffa LLC<\/span><\/p>\n<p>UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje has said that he believes Ilia Topuria is undersized for the 155-pound division.<\/p>\n<p>Upon entering the UFC lightweight division, Ilia Topuria made a statement by knocking out Charles Oliveira to become a two-weight world champion. In his next outing, however, Topuria went on to lose the belt to Justin Gaethje in a dramatic main event at UFC Freedom 250.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: Justin Gaethje opens up on when he will decide about his next fight<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While Ilia Topuria certainly had some bright moments in that fight, he also wound up quitting on the stool, and he took an incredible beating in the process that has altered the trajectory of his entire career.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview, Gaethje explained why he thinks lightweight might be a step too far for Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n<h3>Justin Gaethje on Ilia Topuria at lightweight<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s a lightweight,\u201d Gaethje said on the \u201cFlagrant Podcast.\u201d \u201cI think he should go down. I think he can beat Volkanovski and be champion at featherweight. I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll ever be a champion at lightweight. He can\u2019t beat Arman (Tsarukyan). He\u2019s going to have a difficult time with Paddy (Pimblett). There\u2019s a bunch of dogs. This sport is crazy, so a little luck, a little chance is always involved. Can he get lucky, and is he skilled enough? Absolutely. I think he\u2019s undersized for lightweight. That\u2019s what I felt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think that he created a fake world before,\u201d Gaethje said. \u201cBelieving he\u2019s unbeatable, invincible. That\u2019s not possible. Nobody is f*cking unbeatable or invincible. Putting on parties, updating bios, it\u2019s kind of the same thing. He was updating the bio as if he had won before the fight happened. It\u2019s a very similar thing, but as a loser now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quotes via MMA Junkie<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree with Gaethje? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, BJPENN Nation!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-1 mt-0 os-source\">This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ilia-topuria\/justin-gaethje-believes-ilia-topuria-is-undersized-for-lightweight-division\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=justin-gaethje-believes-ilia-topuria-is-undersized-for-lightweight-division\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trending:Paddy Pimblett provides an update on his next UFC fightZuffa LLC UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje has said that he believes Ilia Topuria is undersized for the 155-pound division. Upon entering the UFC lightweight division, Ilia Topuria made a statement by knocking out Charles Oliveira to become a two-weight world champion. In his next outing,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[404,309,495,759,494,567,760,14194],"class_list":["post-29880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fighters","tag-believes","tag-division","tag-gaethje","tag-ilia","tag-justin","tag-lightweight","tag-topuria","tag-undersized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaallout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}