UFC veteran Matt Brown has given his two cents on the potential Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje bout. Brown thinks this fight will headline the UFC White House event.
Justin Gaethje, the current and two-time interim lightweight champion, and Ilia Topuria, the undisputed UFC 155-pound kingpin, have shown interest in fighting on June 14.
Check out Ilia Topuria showing interest in the June 14 card below:
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with MMA Fighting, “The Immortal” stated that he doesn’t think the June 14 event will deliver as promised. The former UFC fighter believes the promotion lacks star power, and the UFC’s biggest draw, Conor McGregor, won’t fight at the White House, and he’s just being used as a promotional tool to make the White House card bigger.
Matt Brown weighs in on the potential Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje title unification bout
Matt Brown thinks an interim title bout between “The Highlight” and “El Matador” will serve as this once-in-a-lifetime event’s headliner. However, according to the 45-year-old, this bout is not guaranteed to be a ‘significant and crazy good fight,’ as fans anticipate.
Brown added that in terms of skill set, Ilia Topuria is levels above Gaethje, yet the Georgian-Spaniard might have a hard time knocking out “The Highlight,” just as “El Matador” and his coach have predicted. He said:
Topuria-Gaethje, it’s not as guaranteed as people think that it’s going to be a significant, crazy good fight. I think Topuria’s levels above him. He might have a hard time knocking him out. He might just beat him up for five rounds. He might even play it safe and jab him for five rounds, kind of stick and move like why do I need to go for it here? This is Justin Gaethje; he’s going to throw a wild shot, I need to be careful. That’s probably a fight that’s going to happen on that card, I’m guessing.”
About Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje, he added:
Ilia, you know he’s going to be fighting Gaethje on that card for sure. I think that’s pretty much a done deal. That’s probably going to be your main event.” [h/t: MMA Fighting]
Matt Brown wants to see Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira at the White House
Other than the aforementioned bout, Matt Brown also wants to see Alex Pereira and Jon Jones throw down at the South Lawn of the White House. About that, he added how “Bones” will breeze through “Poatan.”
Unless you get Jones and Pereira as the main event, which even then is it going to be an exciting fight? Is Jones not going to f**king take him down and finish him in a minute or two? Jon’s not going to f**k around with him on the feet.”
The White House event might not feature Russian fighters.
However, due to the lack of star power and American champions, Matt Brown wants Islam Makhachev to be a part of the June 14 celebrations. He added:
I think the even bigger issue is they can make some pretty significant, good fights but what about Americans? It’s at the White House. That’s the problem, they have so few American [stars]. That’s a problem. Unless they just go ahead and say you know what? F*ck whether it’s American or not, we’ll just make it international, which is what I think you almost have to do and the UFC is an international sport…There’s some pretty good fights, particularly with Islam [Makhachev], there’s some good choices out there for him to have some big fights.”
