Justin Gaethje is ready to remove the title of ‘interim champion’ before his name. Well, that will happen one way or the other when he finally faces Khabib Nurmagomedov for the Lightweight Championship at UFC 254. While we are focusing on the natural storyline of champion against champion, there is something we all haven’t made a big deal out of.

In traditional storytelling, we have an American champion in Gaethje go up against an undefeated Russian in Khabib. While we aren’t adding the same connotations, there is something obvious to identify. Gaethje did so on the UFC 254 Embedded vlogs. He compared his situation to that of the iconic boxing movie Rocky IV.

“I could have never imagined representing the United States of America halfway across the world against an undefeated fighter that happens to be a Russian. You know, I happened to watch a lot of Rocky movies. I think it was Rocky IV, it was certainly something special. I used to get up in the morning at 5 AM and travel 2 hours to Phoenix just to wrestle in tournaments. It’s really not different. I just have to fly 16 hours across the world to fu*k Khabib up.”

Justin Gaethje channeling his inner Rocky Balboa

Justin Gaethje will have to overcome a lot to win this fight. Khabib is undefeated and looks scary. However, Gaethje is more than just a plucky underdog. He is possibly the biggest threat to Khabib in the division right now. He eliminated Tony Ferguson from the title picture. While he never got to rematch Dustin Poirier, Poirier is Khabib’s last victim.

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Gaethje brings a varied skill-set to the table. But the question is, will it be enough to neutralize Khabib? Khabib’s brand of wrestling is almost unbeatable. Gaethje has amateur wrestling credentials but hasn’t used those skills in MMA. A lot of questions will be answered at UFC 254.

If Gaethje wants to put himself in Rocky Balboa’s shoes, he is welcome. But the challenge ahead is not fixed in a Hollywood script. He has to earn the victory over Khabib, and only he can help himself do that within the Octagon.