Beneil Dariush: Justin Gaethje must make it ugly, awkward vs. Ilia Topuria

Beneil Dariush explains how Justin Gaethje can make things interesting against Ilia Topuria . Interim champion Gaethje (27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) meets lightweight champ Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in a title-unification bout which headlines UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 in Washington. Gaethje is a massive underdog against Topuria, who has knocked out current featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski , former champ Max Holloway , and BMF champ Charles Oliveira in his past three fights.

Dariush thinks Gaethje can use his unorthodox striking style to throw Topuria off. "Justin needs to make it ugly because he's able to do that," Dariush told MMA Junkie. "When he fought Dustin Poirier , Dustin has very good boxing.

It visually looks very good, and Justin Gaethje was somehow able to make it look ugly. So I think he needs to do that. He needs to get in there and make it look ugly.

"Everybody he fights – Michael Johnson has beautiful striking and then when he fought Justin Gaethje, it looked messy. I think Justin needs to create what he calls car crashes. I think he needs to create a bunch of car crashes, make it as messy as possible, and as awkward as possible.