WASHINGTON, D.C. — On a night unlike any the UFC has ever put on; on a night that blurred borders between sports, politics and culture; and on a night of ostentatious pageantry and gaudy superpatriotism, Justin Gaethje, never in doubt, did exactly what he always does.

Dogged and uncompromising, bullheaded and relentless, Gaethje rewound the clock again, to a dying era of warhorse lightweights determined to prove they could dig deeper than the next man, putting a prolonged beating on the heavily favoured Ilia Topuria over four rounds until the Spanish-Georgian champion’s corner saw enough and called it on his behalf.

That’s how Gaethje entered this sport on the Colorado amateur scene nearly two decades ago. That’s how he built his incontestable reputation as one of the fight game’s most violent, demanding opponents over a gruelling, 15-year professional run. And that’s how he won undisputed UFC lightweight gold for the first time in three attempts Sunday with a quintessential Justin Gaethje performance.

"I prayed so much for this opportunity to do something legendary. And I know that was absolutely legendary because I can’t even believe it," Gaethje said in the moments following his name being read as the UFC's new 155-pound champion. “I told myself I was going to lose. I told myself I was going to get embarrassed. So that I could go to my most primal place and dig deep. And I had to. That guy had me in trouble. He had me rocked. He rocked my chin, smoked my liver. And I stuck in it."

Where Gaethje’s win ranks among all-time UFC upsets is a matter of subjectivity but it’s unquestionably high on the list. Gaethje closed as a 375 underdog; Topuria, a -525 favourite. Such was the monumental task facing a forever-game, yet timeworn Gaethje in his career’s twilight against an extremely heavy-handed yet technical Topuria in his athletic prime.

But after the final in a series of unique, theatrical walkouts — set to live, show-stealing renditions of each fighter’s music by the United States Marine Band — that made the most of a sporting event’s unprecedented access to the halls of American power, Gaethje came out of his corner determined to meet Topuria’s ferocity, landing jabs and uppercuts........

© Sportsnet