With a spectacular kick to the side of Dustin Poirier's face after a powerful straight right, Justin Gaethje not only avenged his 2018 defeat, he also claimed the symbolic BMF title.
On one of the biggest nights of his career, at the Delta Center arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, "The Highlight" began to measure his chances from the first round using kicks. But Poirier's experience helped him get through the first round without any problems. But that was about to change.
Gaethje went for volume from the start and worked Poirier smartly, showing the experience he had gained since the last time they met.
At the end of the first round, Gaethje's corner congratulated him on the "beautiful chaos" he was creating in the middle of the Octagon and injected energy into the fighter to go out and solve the puzzle in front of him.
The outcome came at 3:57 minutes of the second round, when Gaethje landed an emphatic straight left that went in without a problem, and without giving Gaethje a chance to settle, he landed a left kick that went in between the neck and chin to record the victory.
"I'm very grateful, because normally life doesn't give rematches," said the fighter, who left his record at 25-4 with 20 KO's.
This matchup pitted two of the UFC's best lightweights of the moment against each other, but it was Gaethje who prevailed in the war and is now close to a fight with Islam Makhachev, the division's reigning champion.