Nick Newell, who faced Justin Gaethje in a 2014 WSOF title fight, reflected on what makes Gaethje uniquely dangerous. Newell said Gaethje's output, pressure, and punching power do not diminish even under heavy fatigue, and identified him and Dricus Du Plessis as the only two fighters he has seen who remain entirely unchanged when exhausted.
Nick Newell has offered a vivid firsthand account of what makes Justin Gaethje one of the most dangerous fighters in combat sports, drawing on his own experience sharing the cage with the lightweight champion more than a decade ago.
Newell, now 40 and carrying a professional record of 14-2, faced Gaethje in a WSOF title fight back in 2014. Speaking in a recent interview, the Connecticut-born southpaw described Gaethje as virtually indestructible under pressure, saying the only way to stop him is to kill him. His core observation was that Gaethje's output, forward pressure, and punching power simply do not diminish as a fight wears on — a quality Newell identified as extraordinarily rare.
Gaethje, now 37 and the reigning lightweight champion, backs that reputation up with hard numbers. The Arizona native lands 6.48 significant strikes per minute at a striking accuracy of 58 percent, among the highest marks in his division. His record stands at 28-5 and he competes out of Genesis Training Center in an orthodox stance, standing five-foot-eleven with a 70-inch reach.
The only other fighter Newell placed in the same category is Dricus Du Plessis. The South African middleweight, ranked second in his division and seventh pound-for-pound, is 23-3 at age 32 and produces 5.18 significant strikes per minute at 48 percent accuracy, also adding 2.22 takedowns per 15 minutes. Like Gaethje, Newell described Du Plessis as a fighter who looks no different in the fifth round than the first.
Why it matters
- Newell's first-person testimony carries unusual weight, given he absorbed Gaethje's pressure in an actual title fight
- The comparison to Du Plessis links two fighters from different weight classes who share an elite engine and relentless forward aggression
- Gaethje's championship status at lightweight means that durability and output, as Newell describes them, remain central to any future title challenger's game-planning
