Justin Gaethje gets honest about how rewatching epic Max Holloway bout before UFC 313 made him re-evaluate the loss: "I thought I fought like sh*t"

Justin Gaethje was once determined to erase the memory of his UFC 300 loss to Max Holloway, but as he heads into a UFC 313 matchup with Rafael Fiziev, he has since reevaluated his loss to 'Blessed'. In fact, Gaethje has now adopted a more positive outlook on the defeat, as revealed during his media day interview.

During media day ahead of the pay-per-view, Gaethje revealed that he has only just watched the Holloway loss for the first time, and he was surprised by how well he fought. Despite it being his most recent octagon outing, he believes he is a more improved version of the fighter he was at UFC 300.

"I just watched the Max fight today, for the first time. And I actually think I fought really well. He was just so great and he fought really well that night, but even if I go back to that guy, I'm still a much more refined athlete in my skills and I think with that aggressive style and my skills being much more refined and much more accurate, that [makes it] a dangerous combination."

When asked if there was some difficulty in rewatching a devastating loss like the Holloway one, Gaethje revealed that it wasn't, adding:

"No, I'm actually glad. I thought I fought like sh*t and turns out I didn't. I fought pretty damn good. This is crazy, this is a game of less than inches, less than seconds, there are so many instances in that fight where it could have gone either way."

Check out Justin Gaethje's thoughts on his Max Holloway loss (1:17 and 12:52):

The loss was a stunning one, as it saw Gaethje suffer a brutal knockout in the final second of the last round. However, the former interim lightweight champion is now determined to remind the MMA world why he is one of the most dangerous fighters at lightweight when he takes on Fiziev in a rematch.

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Most of Justin Gaethje's losses have come against ex-featherweights

One of the most shocking revelations about Justin Gaethje is that three out of the five losses he has suffered were against former featherweights. Besides Eddie Alvarez and the great Khabib Nurmagomedov, 'The Highlight' has lost to Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and, of course, Max Holloway.

The latter three were all featherweights at one point. However, Holloway was the only one among the three to have achieved success at the highest level at 145 pounds, as he is among the division's greatest-ever champions.