Justin Gaethje has built a career on chaos with forward pressure, wild exchanges, thunderous leg kicks, and a willingness to eat one to land two. But ahead of his interim lightweight title fight with Paddy Pimblett, a different part of his résumé is suddenly getting the spotlight. Not the brawling, but the balance, the ability to stay upright when opponents want him on his back.

And according to Chael Sonnen, that puts Gaethje in some rare company. That’s where the comparison begins, and why Jose Aldo’s name unexpectedly entered the conversation.

In a video on his YouTube channel, Sonnen dissected ‘The Highlight’s recent comments about his own skill set and leaned into the comparison as he shared, “Now, Justin did an interview and he talked about the X’s and O’s of this fight and said that his wrestling defense is second to none. That’s interesting, by the way. Statistically speaking, he might actually have the best defense in MMA. He might.”

But the veteran didn’t stop there. He pointed out in the video, “If you look at ground control, which means how long has a guy been on top of another guy and you were to juxtapose that over the length of a career, Jose Aldo’s was straight.  Jose Aldo was defensively what George St. Pierre was offensively in wrestling. But Justin Gaethje is right there at any rate.”

On paper, Aldo still owns the crown. His career takedown defense sits at a staggering 92%, compared to Gaethje’s 68%. That gap matters. Numbers don’t lie. But context does complicate things. The Brazilian legend, especially in his prime featherweight run, often forced opponents to abandon takedowns altogether.

Gaethje, meanwhile, has built a career on refusing to concede extended control. He might get touched, but he rarely gets stuck unless dealing with grapplers like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira.

However, Justin Gaethje’s wrestling roots aren’t new. He began wrestling at four years old, became a two-time Arizona state champion, and finished his collegiate career as a Division I All-American at Northern Colorado. In 2020, he was inducted into the University of Northern Colorado Athletics Hall of Fame. This isn’t a striker who learned takedown defense on the fly. It’s a wrestler who chose to strike.

So is Gaethje really in the same defensive conversation as Jose Aldo? Statistically, no. Functionally, maybe closer than it looks. And against Paddy Pimblett, that may be the only comparison that matters, especially when you hear how Justin Gaethje thinks this fight could actually unfold.

Justin Gaethje shuts down concerns as he claims to have “no issues” in grappling with Paddy Pimblett

UFC 324 still screams striker versus grappler on paper, as Justin Gaethje has made a living turning chaos into highlight reels. But when he spoke to Submission Radio, his tone wasn’t reckless. It was reflective and almost calculated.

“People remember the biggest fights that I’ve had against the most elite grapplers, you know, I have had issues,” Gaethje admitted. Then came the clarification that matters. “But the way that Charles Oliveira got me to the ground was by rocking me and sitting me down with a punch. Khabib was just a whole other conundrum.”

That distinction isn’t accidental. Gaethje isn’t pretending those losses didn’t happen. He’s reframing how they happened, and he even acknowledged his upcoming opponent’s grappling skill but said that since losing to Charles Oliveira, he has heavily invested in jiu-jitsu and grappling, adding that it’s an area he’s grown more comfortable with and even begun to enjoy more than at any point earlier in his career.

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As such, Gaethje isn’t planning to wrestle Pimblett for fun as he said, “I have no issue with the grappling department and my ability to keep people from taking me down is second to none. So he’s going to have to compromise me with his punches and kicks and knees, and then if that happens, then he’ll have a better chance. This is such a crazy game, you just never know. Maybe I’ll sub him. That’s got to be million-to-one odds, though.”

‘The Highlight’ has only one submission win on his record, long before the UFC spotlight found him. His legacy is violence, not chokeholds. But against Pimblett, he expects the Englishman to test the waters on the feet first. So is Justin Gaethje about to prove Chael Sonnen right? Or is this where theory collapses under pressure? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!