Justin Gaethje is having a hard time envisioning a scenario in which he defeats Max Holloway at UFC 300 and then challenges Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title seven weeks later.
BMF title fight between reigning champion Gaethje (25-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) and Holloway (25-7 MMA, 21-7 UFC) on Saturday's card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) has encountered some resistance within the MMA community, especially from those who think it's disrupting the natural order of lightweight title footage.
Current 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev and former titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov were critical of the UFC's matchmaking, believing Gaethje should have been the next challenger. Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan are also scheduled to fight at UFC 300, and Makhachev doesn't think anyone will be able to meet his desired schedule of competing at UFC 302 on June 1 in Newark, New Jersey. That's why he called Dustin Poirier for this match. date.
Gaethje admitted he would be “frustrated” if Poirier, who won the BMF title by knockout at UFC 291 in July, ended up facing Makhachev. However, he said he can't imagine fighting in June and that his preferred timetable for a title shot would be near the end of the year.
“Ideally, they would call this Oliveira vs. Sarkyan fight a title eliminator, so the winner of that fight would fight (Makhachev) in June and hopefully at Madison Square Garden in November. I'll fight the winner of that,'' Gaethje told MMA Junkie. “That seems like the perfect timeline to me. There's always time to rest, recover and retrain myself to get ready for that fight. That's the perfect situation for me. Oliveira again Let's see if he leaves the bed. If Tsarukyan wins, I think he'll win, but they're calling it a title eliminator, so whoever wins will have to fight that match.”
Gaethje said he is grateful to supporters who think he should fight Makhachev next instead of Holloway. But it's too late for that to matter. He is fully prepared mentally and physically for this weekend's fight with Holloway, and if he can do his job, his next fight will be against Teldo in the UFC lightweight division. I am confident that it will be.
“I hope you understand how this sport works, I fought (Rafael) Fiziev and knocked out the number two guy, and there's no one left,” Gaethje said. “Oliveira was scheduled to fight him in October. He was scheduled to fight the winner of that fight in February. But it didn't work out that way, so this is where we are and this is what I think… It’s something you have to take care of.”
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