The newly crowned UFC lightweight champion, Justin Gaethje, is on top of the world following his historic fourth-round win over Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250. However, his recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience has fans looking at him in an entirely different light.

Speaking with the UFC commentator, ‘The Highlight’ revealed a dark chapter of his past, admitting to a quiet battle with drug addiction in his younger years that he kept entirely hidden from his family.

“I’ve made mistakes,” he said. “I was never…Thank God I was never an alcoholic, never, but I was; I could say I was probably a drug addict, you know, at one time in my life. I’ve never told my parents about this stuff.”

When the JRE host pressed him on what exactly he was using, Justin Gaethje’s response was blunt.

“All of them. All of them,” he replied.

Growing up in a small, quiet border town in Arizona that shares an international boundary with Mexico, Justin Gaethje claimed that boredom and easy access to high-quality substances fueled his experimentation.

“Where I come from, we’re not far from Mexico, and we had the best… We had the best s— coming right across the border before it ever got cut up,” he continued. “And it was, it was my life, you know. Where I’m from is very boring, so, like, you chase… again, you know, we have it so good in this country; we’re always trying to create chaos in order to feel something, and I guess that’s what I was probably doing.”

Surprisingly, his academic past in human services, where he studied about helping people overcome substance abuse, actually furthered his curiosity.

“So, it’s going to sound stupid, but so I went to school for human services,” he added. “I wanted to help people. A big part of that is helping people come off drugs, and I lost many, over a handful of friends, really close friends, from drugs.

“And in college is when I really, you know…If I’m going to help people come off of drugs, then how can I ever even try to understand if I don’t know what they’re chasing? And so that was a part of it. It was also a part of it was that felt good.”

Fortunately, ‘The Highlight’ maintained a firm grip on his reality, believing he was meant for a higher purpose.

“And so, you know, once I did certain things, I knew what people were chasing,” he claimed. “But then I always knew that something was there for me, better for me, and I had something to do.

“And so that was always; it was never a crutch for me. I was always like, that was awesome. You know, I’m not doing it again.”

Justin Gaethje never allowed the habit to become a permanent crutch, and notably, he has maintained a spotless drug-testing record throughout his professional UFC career. And it is worth noting that ‘The Highlight’ is far from the first fighter to speak up about these kinds of struggles.

Justin Gaethje is only one of the many MMA success stories with a substance abuse past

Justin Gaethe’s story shares some serious parallels with that of UFC 328 veteran Jared Gordon, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction before making it to the biggest MMA promotion in the world. ‘Flash’ survived three near-fatal overdoses, spent much of his life homeless, panhandling on the streets, and faced a lengthy prison sentence after being charged with home invasion, robbery, and felony battery in Florida.

His substance abuse struggles began as he got addicted to prescription medications before progressing to heroin and crack, eventually getting clean in 2010 and using MMA to completely rebuild his life.

“I overdosed three times,” he told Fox Sports. “I was facing 25 years to life at one point. I’ve been homeless, panhandling; I’ve been to psych wards. I’ve been to rehab 10 times, and I’ve had near-death situations.

“At this point, I just consider myself grateful and extremely lucky and blessed to be where I am.”

Then there’s former middleweight contender Chris Leben, who fought some of his toughest wars outside the cage against severe alcohol and painkiller addictions. ‘The Crippler’ famously went to rehab and served a jail stint for breaking into his estranged wife’s San Diego apartment before finally recovering from it all to celebrate years of sobriety.

Another big name on this list is Conor McGregor, who opened up about his own battles and spiritual awakening last year. The former UFC two-division champion stated that after years of controversies and the devastating leg injury in 2021, he reached “rock bottom.”

But now, ‘The Irishman’ claims to have found God, declaring himself “saved” and claiming to be spiritually and emotionally cured as a result of his return to faith. The Irishman has time and again spoken about forgiving himself for his previous sins and adopting a fresh perspective on life, even describing an ibogaine treatment experience as transformative for his mind.

Whether fans really believe his redemption story is surely up for debate, but Conor McGregor claims he is a changed man now. And to prove it, he’s about to put that change to the test as Conor McGregor is set to make his long-awaited return at UFC 329, where he will face Max Holloway in one of the year’s most anticipated fights.

Now, with Justin Gaethje being a new addition to this list, these guys are turning out to be living examples that you can hit rock bottom and still claw your way back.