What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 2 in Philadelphia on Saturday? Here’s a thing or five …

1. Watch out, Gaethje gonna get you

To borrow a line from Sheriff Teasle: Whatever possessed God in heaven to make a man like Justin Gaethje? This guy, he fights like he owes a debt that can only be repaid in pain and blood – yours or his, it doesn’t matter. He’s just going to keep walking forward until a sufficient amount of human damage has been done. And he’s actually going to enjoy it, in his own way.

You’d think maybe Edson Barboza would be equipped to deal with that. He’s a veteran fighter. He can win a technical striking battle but he can also go all blood-and-guts when he has to. But then Gaethje baited him into a slugfest and Barboza couldn’t say no. He was also so busy trying to get free of that Gaethje pressure that he forgot to keep his hands up on the way out. Next stop: the land of wind and ghosts.

Now Gaethje has two straight wins after suffering those two straight losses and we find ourselves once again wondering what to make of him. Is he legit championship material, or is he just a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robot come to life? In a perfect world, maybe he could even be both.

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