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Justin Gaethje talks of missed opportunity with Conor McGregor, feels he is next in line for winner of upcoming lightweight title bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson
Justin Gaethje talks of missed opportunity with Conor McGregor, feels he is next in line for winner of upcoming lightweight title bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson
You never know when “Gorgeous” George or “Goze” will catch somebody “Off Guard.” This time they catch up with Dominance MMA manager, Ali Abdelaziz.
You never know when “Gorgeous” George or “Goze” will catch somebody “Off Guard.” This time they catch up with Dominance MMA manager, Ali Abdelaziz.
Justin Gaethje’s future is unclear, but he doesn’t mind waiting on Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson to play out – or being on standby.
Last week saw two major fights announced – both relevant to the UFC lightweight division.
Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone will elevate to 170 pounds to headline UFC 246 on Jan. 18. Three months later, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov will defend his title against Tony Ferguson at an April 18 event expected to be UFC 249.
While much of the upper echelon of the UFC lightweight division has been booked, [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag]’s future remains uncertain. Riding a three-fight winning streak with as many first-round knockouts in that time, Gaethje doesn’t have a fight scheduled.
On Monday, Gaethje joined “The Luke Thomas Show” to discuss his future. While some contenders are hesitant to sit on the shelf healthy for months in order to get their crack at a title, Gaethje doesn’t seem to mind.
“Ultimately, I got into this for one reason – to fight for a world championship,” Gaethje said. “If that’s at the end of the rope, then absolutely. I don’t want to. I’m not getting any younger, but I want to fight for the world title. I’m not going to be a tool; I’m going to make smart business decisions from here on out. Not strictly, but right now, three wins in a row, three knockouts, three first-round finishes in a row. Yeah, that’s what I’m looking for.
“I’m planning on trying to maybe be ready for around (April 18) just in case something happens. But it’s super hard for me to get up for a training camp or a fight if I don’t have an opponent. So I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”
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When asked if he would consider being a standby replacement for the fifth booking of Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson, Gaethje made it clear he’s not opposed.
“If they cover the cost of the training camp, then I’m in,” Gaethje said. “I need to get in shape again anyways, so it wouldn’t hurt. You know what it is. Financially it’s a commitment, especially for a fight like that, you know? I want to fight Khabib. I’ve got to fight Khabib. If that’s how it goes down, I’ll only be mad at myself if I’m not ready for it.”
Regardless of timeframes, opponents or dates, Gaethje believes he is unequivocally next in line. In his eyes, there isn’t anyone who logically stands between him and the next crack at 155-pound gold.
“I’m the guy waiting for the title shot,” Gaethje said. “I’ve got the winner of the fight in April as far as I’m concerned. Three knockouts in a row. I’m not sure what else I need to do. If there’s someone else in the way, I’d have to go through them. But I don’t think there is, so the winner of that is looking like the most likely.”
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Did the UFC make the right move booking Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone? MMA Junkie’s Matt Erickson, Farah Hannoun and Nolan King discuss.
The fight had been rumored for a while, and Thursday it was made official. Conor McGregor will return from what will be about a 15-month layoff to headline UFC 246 in Las Vegas against Donald Cerrone. But was this the right fight for the UFC to make right now? MMA Junkie’s Matt Erickson, Farah Hannoun and Nolan King break it down in the latest edition of Triple Take.
The oft-rumored [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Donald Cerrone[/autotag] fight became a reality Thursday – the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., of all days.
It’s a fight pitting arguably the most bankable star in UFC history – McGregor – against the promotion’s all-time leader in fight-night bonus awards, which makes the matchup seem like a slam-dunk no-brainer where the hype-o-meter is concerned.
But like nearly everything in this sport, we can’t just have nice things without the naysayers getting their $0.02 in. You know the types. They’re the ones who can’t just cruise past a tweet or Facebook post or Instagram photo without chiming in, just so everyone knows they’re here. Gotta put that thumbprint on everything.
We can’t just be happy with a perfectly good fist fight between two fighters who essentially are legends and future UFC Hall of Famers. We have to put it under a microscope and pick it apart and find some kind of fault with it, right? That’s just how we do it in the Twitter Era!
It almost didn’t matter who McGregor was matched up against. The talk was going to be just that he was coming back, period. He’s been out since his UFC 229 submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov and the subsequent post-fight brawl between their camps. And not coincidentally, that was the matchup (and the UFC 223 bus incident that preceded it) that seemed to kick off McGregor’s spate of outside-the-cage troubles. Add them all together – the bus arrest, the Miami Beach arrest, the Dublin pub incident – and it presents a troubling pattern.
Throw in a couple of reports of sexual assault allegations that have been vehemently denied – and that McGregor hasn’t been charged with – and a case could be made that until the Irish superstar gets his proverbial ish together in the real world, the UFC should just not book him at all.
But c’mon … we all know that’s not gonna happen. When McGregor fights, he makes money for everyone. And with his slate clean from the things he has been charged with, there’s really no reason to keep him on the sidelines if he wants to finally get back to work.
So why is this a good matchup? I’ve got two reasons for you. The first is, while Cerrone might not be a Conor McGregor fan, he almost certainly respects not only his fighting ability, but the way he’s able to get people to pay attention to him. Cerrone goes about it in a much different way – he just puts his head down, does his work, and when he’s off the clock, he goes full-on “Cowboy” doing what he wants to do.
But I’ll predict Cerrone is not going to be the type of opponent for McGregor who will engage in a whole bunch of social media trash talk. More likely, he’s the type who might not be a fan of the guy, but after they fight he’ll smile at him and raise a glass to him for going to battle. And that’s just the type of opponent the UFC needs to give McGregor right now – one who is not a major risk of baiting McGregor into Twitter wars of words, or who might turn things ugly come fight week. McGregor has had enough trouble of late – so put him in there with someone who has the potential to just show up to fight and not turn the whole thing into a sideshow leading up to it.
And secondly, this is the perfect matchup to make not for McGregor, but for Cerrone. The UFC shouldn’t book this fight as any kind of favor to McGregor. They’ve done him enough solids already, and he should just be happy to get a fight. But Cerrone? He’s been just about a perfect company man through the years. He takes fights on short notice, he takes hard fights, he fights up-and-comers – and all he does time after time is deliver. You don’t wind up with 18 fight-night bonuses if you’re not bringing it every time out.
We’ve all heard McGregor talk about the kinds of pay days he brings to the fighters he steps in against. They can be life-altering. And while Cerrone doesn’t seem to have any issues with the checks he gets from fighting, if anyone deserves a pay-per-view main event and the type of check that can come with a fight against McGregor, it’s “Cowboy.”
Everyone wins with this booking. The UFC gets McGregor back in the cage and a likely blockbuster pay-per-view event out of the gate in 2020. McGregor gets back to work against an opponent who is likely to be willing to just fight him in the cage, and not on social media. And Cerrone gets his “Red Panty Night.” It’s a trifecta, and it’s perfect.
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Justin Gaethje breaks down the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson fight.
With a fight between [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] and [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] close to being finalized, top lightweight contender [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag] will be watching closely.
UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov is expected to face former UFC interim lightweight champ Ferguson on April 18, pending negotiations from Ferguson’s side.
With Nurmagomedov and Ferguson looking to make their fifth booking the charm (four previously scheduled fights between the two have been scrapped), Gaethje proceeded to break down how he sees the fight playing out on a recent episode of Michael Bisping’s “Believe You Me” podcast.
“I do think Khabib will win,” Gaethje said. “But I do think Tony is going to bring some … I don’t know if he’s going to lay on his back and throw elbows, I don’t know what the hell is going to happen there.
“Especially the way Khabib fights, and the way Khabib wins. It’s crazy how much and how hard Tony gets hit, how often he gets hit at fights but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for him in this fight because Khabib is not going to be looking to exploit that, that option. He’s going to do what he does. I’m really interested to see if Tony, his jiu-jitsu, for one, plays a factor, and for two, just his tenaciousness of being on bottom and still wanting to fight.”
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Gaethje has won three straight fights by first-round knockout and finds himself in a bit of a quandary. He has expressed interest in facing Conor McGregor next, but with the UFC rumored to book McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone, where does that leave Gaethje?
All he knows is, his ultimate goal is to challenge Nurmagomedov.
“I’m trying to get to Khabib,” Gaethje said. “Khabib, I know, has publicly stated he does not have many fights left, so I have to fight him before he goes away. I can’t let him go undefeated without at least testing, being able to test him myself. I consider myself one of the most dangerous lightweights in the world and I bring different things that Khabib hasn’t had to deal with, necessarily. I have crazy power in my legs, in my arms, in my hands. I’m really good at wrestling. I’m super athletic. I’ve been wrestling as long as he has. Nobody has wrestled as long as he has except for me. So I’m trying to ultimately get that fight.”
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