Justin Gaethje has told Charles Oliveira that he will have to 'walk through hell' like Khabib Nurmagomedov to stand any chance of victory.

The Highlight finally gets his shot at the UFC lightweight champion in the main event of UFC 274 in front of a sold-out Footprint Center on May 7.

Gaethje, who is coming off of a huge win over Michael Chandler, goes into the clash as the underdog.

But the American has claimed he will take Oliveira, who he has previously called a 'quitter', into deep waters on Saturday night.

And he also stated that Chandler would have ended up in a very bad way indeed had the fight had gone on for another two rounds.

Gaethje told ESPN: "If he can beat me, then kudos to him, but he's going to have to walk through hell like Khabib did.

"He's not as powerful, he doesn't have the structure, he doesn't have the frame and he doesn't have explosive takedowns.

"He's going to have to find me making a mistake overreaching and try to get it to a grappling situation.

Justin Gaethje went to war with Michael Chandler

"Outside that he'd better be praying everyday that he gets me to the ground because if not it's going to be the same fight as Chandler except five rounds.

"If I went five rounds with Chandler, he would've died and that's the truth, so I'm glad we didn't go five rounds."

Gaethje, 33, came up short against Nurmagomedov, also 33, back at UFC 254 in October 2020.

Such a crushing loss would have been a bitter pill to swallow for anyone never mind someone who has spent their entire adult life competing in martial arts.

However, he insists he doesn't see it that way.

Charles Oliveira is the current UFC lightweight champion

He revealed: "I think it helped tremendously.

"I mean every experience that I've gone through in life is why I'm here.

"I can't take the negatives and throw it away or the positives and throw it away.

"It's all been a learning experience.

"Again, if you're a creature of habit, you're absolutely screwed in Abu Dhabi because that was the situation.

"I loved it because there was no other option."

The American has campaigned for a title shot against Oliveira for months.

And he insisted that he has got a good feeling ahead of his second attempt at winning the lightweight title.

He continued: "This one's special, I can feel it's something special, so I'm excited for it.

"Again the opportunity to inspire the world from a small place in Salford, Arizona...

"The reason I get these bonuses is because I face adversity.

"I've shown you can face adversity and we can all overcome that.

"That's again the opportunity that I have that I want to take advantage of and with a loss I promise I will inspire the world just the same so I'm cool with it."