Justin Gaethje gave Charles Oliveira some praise immediately after their fight at UFC 274.

In the lead-up to their fight, Gaethje was vocal in saying Oliveira was still a quitter and he would prove it. He also doubted the Brazilian would stand and trade with him as he said he would, but that turned out to be the case. The two traded shots and Oliveira ended up dropping Gaethje with a big shot and ended up getting a submission win in the first round.

After the loss, Gaethje went up to Oliveira and told him he has a ton of power. The exchange was captured by the UFC’s Thrill and the Agony video series.

“You hit hard as f**k,” Gaethje said in the exchange.

Justin Gaethje has gone toe-to-toe with some of the best strikers and hardest hitters at lightweight so to see him praise Oliveira is a surprise. The Brazilian has been known as a grappler but his striking has come a long way and no doubt has power as he even knocked out Michael Chandler to win the belt.

With the loss, Gaethje dropped to 23-4 in the UFC and is now 0-2 in undisputed lightweight title fights. Before the loss to Oliveira at UFC 274, he defeated Michael Chandler by decision in one of the best fights ever. In his first lightweight title fight, he was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov after scoring a TKO win over Tony Ferguson in the fight prior to win the interim lightweight title.

Charles Oliveira, meanwhile, is now 33-8 and one No Contest but is no longer the UFC’s lightweight champ as he missed weight before the bout against Gaethje. He defended the strap once with a submission win over Dustin Poirier and knocked out Chandler to win the vacant lightweight title. Out of his 33 wins, nine have come by KO/TKO so as Gaethje says, he does hit hard.

What do you make of Justin Gaethje saying Charles Oliveira hits hard as f**k?