Both Gaethje and Cerrone have trained together in the past, which lead to Gaethje getting knocked out by his future opponent.
?He knocked me out ? he dropped me in sparring,? he said to MMA Junkie. ?I don?t even know if I had a pro fight at the time. I was a kid then and a man now and I?m excited to get in there and give him back that one, yeah.?
The knockout apparently happened while the duo where training together in New Mexico a few years back.
Gaethje is promising one thing for UFC Fight Night Vancouver and that is the fans can expect pure violence when he collides with Cerrone.
?This is pure violence,? Gaethje said. ?This does not need to be talked up. Cowboy has had the most fights, the most performance bonuses, this will make it the most fights ever, the most wins I think, something like that. He has all the records. So I mean, yeah. What do we need to pump up? If you?ve seen me fight, you know that I come to, I?m 100 percent right now, I?ll be 100 percent when I?m done in the fact that either I go to sleep or they go to sleep, so, that?s what I do.?
UFC Fight Night Vancouver takes place on Saturday, September 14 from Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with Donald Cerrone and Justin Gaethje headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on ESPN+.