As we embark on fight week for UFC Lincoln, it is time to put up or shut up for the combatants in the main event of the evening, James Vick and Justin Gaethje. But most of the talking has been done by James Vick, and Justin Gaethje is eager to put up and also do the shutting up of James Vick.
“He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it,” Gaethje told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know, man. I don’t know, I don’t really care. I just can’t wait to put him to sleep, really, honestly. I don’t know. I don’t know why he’d say his volume is higher than mine. I don’t know why he’d say that he’s more athletic than me. I don’t know why he thinks he deserves the opportunities that I’ve gotten. He doesn’t understand how I’ve earned what I’ve gotten, how I earned three top-five opponents, how I earned three out of four main events, how I earned four Fight Night bonuses. He doesn’t understand. He feels entitled for some odd reason.
“He’s only fought one top-15 guy — he went to sleep. There’s a huge difference in the way we both went to sleep.
He’s the definition of someone who’s not a fighter.
How do you get knocked out laying on your back for three minutes when you don’t even go all the way to sleep? You know you’ve got fans and family out there worried about you — get up on your feet and find the stool. Small things like that, I just don’t think he understands what we’re doing here.”
Justin Gaethje did not stop at questioning Vick’s heart as a fighter, he also went on to question his class and intelligence, particularly when compared to his most recent opponents:
“I just fought two of the best guys in the world in my weight class, and you didn’t hear one of them spouting this stuff out because they’re not stupid,” Gaethje said. “They knew that they were going to have to dig deep, they were going to have to prepare, ultimately, for themselves to go out there and give everything and be in a war that they knew they couldn’t avoid.
He thinks he can avoid it, and when he can’t, he’s not mentally prepared.
In the end, the clock is running out on the time for talking, and when the ref yells “fight!” this Saturday, the time for running will be over as well, says Gaethje:
“You can only say so many things, man. At the end of the day, August 25, you have to get in there. They have to lock the Octagon, he has to get locked in there with me, and he’s going to have to deal with this. He’s in the UFC, he’s ranked No. 11 in the world — I’m not saying the guy’s not worthy. He fell into this, for one. It’s not like he was set up for this fight. Someone fell out and he stepped up, so he’s got the balls to step in there.
I just don’t think he understands what he’s going to have to go through.
“He lit a fire under my ass, and I’m excited to go out there and extinguish it on August 25.
“I’m going to march him down and make him pay for everything that’s come out of his mouth.
It’s going to be the most terrifying night of James Vick’s life.
He will wake up a humbled turd, and he won’t look at himself in the mirror the same for a few weeks, I can guarantee it. He’s going to be a smashed turd when I’m done with him.”
Do you agree with Justin Gaethje? Has James Vick bitten off more than he can chew with his trash talk?
