After losing out in his lightweight title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov a couple of months ago, Justin Gaethje hasn’t given up on his title ambitions and instead is looking ahead to a potential future battle for the belt against the winner of the upcoming Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier rematch at UFC 257 on January 23rd.
The way Gaethje sees it, the lightweight title will soon be up for grabs, whether Nurmagomedov confirms his retirement or aims for a superfight with GSP, so he feels he will be well placed to compete for the vacant belt against one of the aforementioned fighters.
“I’m number one so of course I want to fight for that f*cking belt, that’s why I’m here,” Gaethje told The Schmo. “Poirier and McGregor are fighting soon so I want to fight the winner of that. I wholeheartedly believe you should be coming off a win to fight for a belt. So my job now is to get a win.”
Former Bellator kingpin Michael Chandler is one fighter who has been mentioned in relation to Gaethje lately, but Gaethje isn’t calling out anyone just yet, and is leaving the door open to just jump straight to fighting the McGregor vs. Porier winner.
“I want to fight for the belt and if it is the winner of that fight then I would, in turn, need to beat somebody first,” Gaethje said. “But, I’ll definitely just fight the winner for the belt, I’m down with that, too.”
Whatever happens, Gaethje believes that despite the setback against Nurmagomedov, that he still has a lot more left to offer in the 155lb ranks.
“It’s a fun ride and it’s not over yet. It’s not over until we go crashing down. I’m having fun. Tough break last fight. It was an honor to fight against Khabib, it was f*cking heartbreaking to lose, but I’ve been here before and I came back strong and I’ll continue to do the same thing.”
