Justin Gaethje: Record, Next Fight, UFC Career Profile

Record: 27-5 (UFC profile) · Height: 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) · Reach: 70 in (178 cm) · Division: Lightweight · Title status: Former interim UFC lightweight champion · Born: November 14, 1988

Seven profile facts, one pattern: the official numbers hold up until 2025, and then the record splits into two versions.

Every version of the ID card agrees on the physical stats; the disagreement starts with the win count.

Is Justin Gaethje a champ?

Gaethje has held a belt in every promotion that mattered to his career. The UFC’s official profile calls him a former interim lightweight champion — a label some 2026 fight reports would now update.

What titles has Justin Gaethje won?

• Interim UFC Lightweight Championship — won by fifth-round stoppage over Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 on May 9, 2020 (Wikipedia, community-maintained entry).
• WSOF Lightweight Championship — five successful defenses between 2014 and 2018, per the UFC’s athlete profile.

The pattern is consistent across both belts: he won them by pressure, not by playing it safe.

How did Gaethje become interim champion?

The UFC 249 win moved Gaethje into an undisputed title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov later that year. His interim reign ended there, but the path established the pattern of his career: win the big one, get the bigger shot.

The implication: Gaethje is a champion by every official record that matters; the open question is whether the reported 2026 results would change his status from former to current.

What is Justin Gaethje’s record?

The short answer is 27-5 if you read the UFC, and 28-5 if you read CBS Sports. The one-win gap is the reported Topuria bout, and it separates the two versions of his career.

How many wins and losses does Gaethje have?

• 27 wins and 5 losses across 32 professional fights, per the UFC profile.
• CBS Sports lists the same 27-5 line plus one reported win over Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250, for a 28-5 record (CBS Sports fighter database).
• FightMatrix logs Gaethje’s UFC record at 11-5-0 and lists the June 14, 2026 Topuria bout as his last fight (FightMatrix MMA statistics database).

Three losses show up consistently across the sources used here: Khabib Nurmagomedov by second-round submission at UFC 254 in October 2020 (CBS Sports fighter database), Charles Oliveira by second-round submission at UFC 274 in May 2022 (FightMatrix MMA statistics database), and Max Holloway by fifth-round knockout at UFC 300 on April 13, 2024 (Fightomic fighter profile).

How many knockouts does Justin Gaethje have?

• 20 knockout victories and nine first-round finishes, per the UFC’s count.
• The headline finish of his later UFC run: a second-round knockout of Dustin Poirier at UFC 291 on July 29, 2023 (Fightomic fighter profile).

What this means: until the UFC updates its page, the accurate answer to “what’s his record?” is “which record?” — one line at 27 wins, one at 28.

Who is Justin Gaethje fighting next?

Every major MMA database reports a fight after the Fiziev rematch. The disagreement is about which fight, and whether it has already happened.

Is Justin Gaethje fighting Ilia Topuria?

• Per Khel Now, Gaethje unified the lightweight titles against Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026 (Khel Now).
• CBS Sports includes that Topuria win in its version of Gaethje’s record.
• Wikipedia’s entry describes the result as a fourth-round corner-stoppage TKO in a title-unification bout.

When is the Gaethje vs Topuria fight?

• Reported date and event: June 14, 2026, at an event labeled UFC Freedom 250.
• ESPN’s fighter page lists a separate interim-title bout before that: a unanimous-decision win over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 on January 24, 2026 (ESPN fighter page).
• The UFC profile lists neither bout; its most recent entry remains the Fiziev fight on March 8, 2025.

The trade-off: fans searching for Gaethje’s next fight get two timelines — one official, one reported — and only the UFC’s record update can merge them.

Which fighter has the highest IQ?

This is the rare MMA question with no stat sheet. “Fight IQ” is a label for how a fighter reads distance, adjusts mid-fight, and avoids trading damage when the game plan breaks.

What is fight IQ in MMA?

• Instinct: split-second decisions under fatigue.
• Strategy: executing a game plan against a specific opponent.
• Adaptability: changing approach after the first round.

By that working definition, Gaethje’s pressure style — forward movement, leg kicks, durability — is a high-risk expression of fight IQ, not the calculating kind that dominates this discussion.

Who is known for the highest fight IQ?

• Demetrious Johnson — the name that comes up most often, cited for positional intelligence and minimal damage.
• Israel Adesanya — cited for range management and mid-fight adjustments.

Neither name comes from a ranking. Both come from fight-by-fight observation, which is why this question never has a definitive answer.

The catch: “highest fight IQ” is a reputation contest, not a statistic. No database measures it, so the answer stays subjective no matter how many times the question is asked.

At what age do fighters peak?

Fighters’ physical peaks usually arrive before their career peaks. The question matters for Gaethje because he is competing well past the age where most lightweight contenders are still in the title picture.

How old is Justin Gaethje?

• Born November 14, 1988, in Safford, Arizona (Wikipedia, community-maintained entry).

That birth date puts him at the edge of every “peak age” chart in the sport.

What is the prime age for MMA fighters?

• The late 20s to early 30s is the commonly cited physical peak for MMA fighters.
• Gaethje’s reported 2026 title run would place him years past that window, a late-career surge built on durability and experience.

The implication: Gaethje’s age is the quiet variable in every 2026 report. If the reported results become official, he would hold a title at an age when most lightweights have already left the division — which is exactly why the official record needs to catch up.

Three versions of the record, one pattern: the official UFC page stays at 27 wins while every other database counts an extra reported win.

The trade-off is embedded in the rows: the UFC’s conservatism protects accuracy but lags reality, and the secondary databases are current but include results the promotion has not verified.

Eight career stats, one pattern: the totals are stable until March 2025, and then the reported 2026 bouts create a second version.

The last row is the story: a reported title fight that exists everywhere except the official UFC record.

Justin Gaethje career timeline

• November 14, 1988 — Born in Safford, Arizona. (Insight Britain)
• 2011 — Professional MMA debut. (Insight Britain)
• 2014–2018 — WSOF lightweight champion with five successful title defenses; the run ends with a move to the UFC. (Insight Britain)
• May 9, 2020 — Stops Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 to win the interim UFC lightweight title. (Insight Britain)
• October 2020 — Loses to Khabib Nurmagomedov by second-round submission at UFC 254. (Insight Britain)
• May 2022 — Loses to Charles Oliveira by second-round submission at UFC 274. (Insight Britain)
• July 29, 2023 — Second-round knockout of Dustin Poirier at UFC 291 (Insight Britain)
• April 13, 2024 — Loses to Max Holloway by fifth-round knockout at UFC 300. (Insight Britain)
• March 8, 2025 — Unanimous-decision win over Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313 — the UFC profile’s most recent entry. (Insight Britain)
• January 24, 2026 (reported) — Interim-title win over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324, per ESPN. (Insight Britain)
• June 14, 2026 (reported) — Title-unification win over Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250, per Khel Now. (Insight Britain)

The pattern: a steady official record until March 2025, then a reported 2026 gap that every secondary source fills differently.

Confirmed vs unclear in Gaethje’s record

For anyone tracking Gaethje’s career, the split is the story: the confirmed list belongs to the UFC’s record, and the unclear list belongs to everything after March 2025.

What the sources say

ESPN’s fighter page lists a January 24, 2026 bout with Paddy Pimblett as an interim-title fight won by unanimous decision.

ESPN fighter page

Khel Now describes Gaethje as winning an interim lightweight title over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324, then unifying the belts against Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250.

Khel Now (MMA-focused sports outlet)

FightMatrix lists Gaethje’s last fight as June 14, 2026, against Ilia Topuria, with his UFC record at 11-5-0.

FightMatrix MMA statistics database

The pattern: three databases, three wordings, one shared conclusion — something happened after the Fiziev fight, and the official record has not caught up.

Where Gaethje’s record goes from here

Every version of Gaethje’s career — the 27-5 official ledger, the 28-5 CBS ledger, the Wikipedia narrative of two 2026 title wins — converges on the same next step: the UFC updates its athlete page. That update is the moment the reported Pimblett and Topuria results become either official history or database noise. For fans planning around Gaethje’s lightweight title picture, the practical move is to watch the promotion’s own record, not the search results, because the UFC’s page is what will settle whether 28-5 is a real record or a reported one.

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