Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently announced the main event between James Vick and Justin Gaethje for the upcoming UFC Fight Night 135 mixed martial arts (MMA) fight card, held inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, on August 25, 2018.
Four balls enter, two balls leave.
Both “The Texecutioner” and “The Highlight” were on hand for last week’s 25th Anniversary press conference (watch it here). And, as expected, the two enjoyed some verbal sparring to promote their upcoming fight, though Vick believes he won by a landslide.
“I kind of felt bad for him after going back and watching the press conference,” Vick told Submission Radio. “He just didn’t have anything in the arsenal. I guess he felt dumb after getting clowned on that first question, so then he comes back at me, tries to ask me another one and then I clown him again. So, I feel like I killed the dude in the press conference, to be honest with you. I felt like there was nothing else he could really say.”
Vick (13-1) is the winner of four straight with three finishes and was last seen outpointing Francisco Trinaldo at UFC Austin back in February. “The Texecutioner,” who cut his teeth on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 15, made his Octagon debut roughly five years back.
What did he see from Gaethje during their press conference staredown?
“I didn’t really see a lot,” Vick said. “I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, he’s not afraid. I’m not gonna act like I saw him being scared. I think that I, don’t know, I just saw a dumb ass. I saw a dude who really just… I don’t know. I don’t know what he was thinking. I don’t think he was really trying to intimidate me and I wasn’t really trying to intimidate him, we were just looking at each other, but I really didn’t see much from the guy.”
This marks the third main event for Gaethje (18-2) since crossing over from World Series of Fighting (WSOF) last summer. While each of his UFC fights has lived up to his “Highlight” moniker, the 29-year-old slugger has only seen the win column once in three attempts.
Who wins this pivotal lightweight showdown?