Justin Gaethje is going to kill Michael Johnson because UFC is life or death

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion Frank Mir once got into all sorts of trouble for promising to make Brock Lesnar the first fighter to die inside the Octagon.

Probably not the best strategy heading into a new television deal.

But that hasn’t stopped some fighters from entering the cage with a “life or death” mentality. That includes The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 25 Finale headliner Justin Gaethje, who wants opponent Michael Johnson to keel over this Friday night on FOX Sports 1.

From his Facebook chat (via MMA Fighting):

“Johnson is a mental midget. You see his interviews and he says this is all talk, he’s just trying to build the fight. No. This is not a game to me. Everything you’ve said, I’ve taken personal. It doesn’t affect me emotionally. I wanted to kill him when the fight got announced and I want to kill him now. No more, no less. It’s life or death for me every single time I step in the cage.”

We usually get life ... but sometimes we get death.

Gaethje (17-0) is crossing over from the regional ranks to make his UFC debut against “The Menace” in “Sin City” and was subjected to some grisly trash talk along the way. Johnson flat-out asked him about being inbred (think Peacock family from X-Files) and well, that didn’t sit well with “The Highlight.”

What he does about it, remains to be seen.