Justin Gaethje has already come full circle in his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) career. From starting his promotional tenure off with a massive knockout victory over Michael Johnson to dropping two-straight Octagon appearances against Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier, “Highlight” has tasted the highs and lows of UFC in such a short period of time.

Luckily, Gaethje has been able to right the ship and reevaluate his strategy as a fighter. Over his past two fights the former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) lightweight champion has shown that he’s much more that just a brawler who will either knock somebody out or get finished in the process.

Instead, Gaethje has transformed his game and is out to prove yet again later tonight (Sat., Sept. 14, 2019) at UFC Fight Night 158 live on ESPN+ from inside Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when he takes on fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone that he’s ready for a UFC lightweight title push.

“I want that to stick around as long as possible,” Gaethje said at a media scrum earlier in the week (h/t The Mac Life). “I want these guys to think they’re fighting a fool and a dummy. My timing is different. They will never be able to replicate the heart rate they get when they fight me.”

Gaethje, 30, has reaped the benefits of his new fighting style by securing first-round knockouts over divisional contenders James Vick and Edson Barboza. The former collegiate wrestler owes his change in success to his coaches and his own willingness to look at his mistakes inside of the cage and flip his entire game upside down.

“My output has dropped about 85 percent, if you look at it, and my coach told me forever, ‘Just try a little bit less and you will find more success,’” Gaethje continued. “It’s like golf. The harder you try, the worse you are to do it. It doesn’t make sense to me because I come from wrestling, where the harder you work, the better you did. But once I lost two times in a row, I was able to go back to the drawing board and take the criticism and try to make the adjustments, and luckily I have the 2018 ‘Coach of the Year,’ the ‘Coach of the Century.’ I’m coachable. Wrestlers are coachable, so I listen to everything he says.”

Should Gaethje be able to reign in his aggression one more time and channel his new inner self this weekend against “Cowboy” he’ll have a real good chance at winning his third fight in a row atop the jam-packed lightweight division. That would be good enough to lock down a money fight with former champion Conor McGregor or even grab a potential title shot sometime next year.

At the very least Gaethje will be able to go strike-for-strike with one of the most popular fighters in the sport today and prove that it’s never too late to redefine yourself as a mixed martial artist.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 158 fight card below, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” undercard bouts at 5 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time of 8 p.m. ET.