Justin Gaethje is not happy about being overlooked for a lightweight title shot yet again.
“The Highlight” has been trying to work his way back to another championship fight since losing a title bout to Charles Oliveira in 2022. He had things pretty much locked coming into UFC 300, but got faceplant KO’d by Max Holloway. And then the 155 pound division got jammed up with the arrival of 145 pound champ Ilia Topuria.
You’d think Gaethje saving UFC 313 from being a one-bout pony by accepting a last minute change from Dan Hooker to Rafael Fiziev would give him the cred he needed with UFC brass to finally secure his shot. But the UFC went ahead and booked Topuria vs. Oliveira for the vacant 155 pound title at UFC 317 … and Justin is done being Mr. Nice Guy.
“I’m not gonna fight for fun anymore,” he said on The Makeshift Project Podcast. “They owe me a championship fight. I’m 3-1 the last four. They came to my house, begged me to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300. In what I consider an exhibition fight — I don’t mean that the loss is not on my record, I mean it had nothing to do with the rankings, you know?”
“At the time that I did that, Dustin Poirier — who I just beat — got a good win over [Benoit] Saint-Denis and then fought for the belt. And then since I won, the champion [Makhachev] had been saying he wants to fight me. So they could have easily set that up, but they didn’t. Then he vacates. And then Oliveira’s 2-2, already has a loss to Makhachev, and they bring a brand new guy in. And I get f—ed again.”
“I’m not going fight any of these motherf—ers for fun, unless they pay me so much more money,” Gaethje continued. “I’m gonna take a risky fight, and if I lose, I’m gonna be set up [financially]. If I win, I’m fighting for a belt. Or I’m not doing it.”
“I’m the most consistent guy [of] anybody that’s ever performed for their company,” he concluded. “And being as consistent of an employee for their company [should] get a Christmas bonus. I’m done doing s—t here. And I love fighting for this s—t. I’d never wanna fight somewhere else. But I’m not gonna just throw my legacy away for for anybody, really.”
Gaethje is 36 and has said he’s one more bad knockout away from retiring from the sport. His days of grinding through the mid-rankings and taking ‘fun’ fights at the top are over as he attempts to solidify his career with an undisputed UFC championship win. Will the UFC let him sit and book him in against the winner of Oliveira vs. Topuria at UFC 317? Or will they splash him with cash and rebook the Dan Hooker fight?
We’re down for either, so long as we get Gaethje fights and Gaethje gets paid properly.
