Islam Makhachev’s coach Javier Mendes has named Justin Gaethje as the ‘ideal’ next opponent for the lightweight champion.
Gaethje was the first to suggest the possibility of facing the dominant champ in his post-fight interview at UFC 313 on Saturday night after defeating Rafael Fiziev on the scorecards in their rematch.
“I mean, I wanna fight for the belt, obviously, it’s a much different matchup than I just had, they tried to give me a donut but I need to get back to running if I’m gonna fight Makhachev,” Gaethje said.
Gaethje’s plan was given a boost when Dana White then confirmed in his post-fight interview that the former interim lightweight and symbolic ‘BMF’ champion was firmly in the mix for a potential title shot.
“I mean, what’s [Gaethje] ranked right now? Fourth or something, right? Third. There you go, he’s still the number three ranked guy in the world so the odds of him getting the title shot are pretty good,” White told reporters.
And when Makhachev’s coach Javier Mendez was on Submission Radio this week he suggested that they are very much on-board with the idea.
“Fantastic, then it’s Justin Gaethje. We’ll focus on Justin Gaethje,” Mendez said.
“That would be ideally for us the perfect matchup based on his standing and what he’s done. He’s a big, known guy and Islam hasn’t fought him so it’s perfect.”
If that was the case however then it would mean that Ilia Topuria would likely not be getting an immediate title shot at 155lbs after vacating his featherweight title recently in order to mount a challenge in the division above.
It also has implications for current No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan, who missed out on his own title challenge late last year due to a last-minute back injury, and had recently suggested that Gaethje should have to go through either him or the No.2 ranked Charles Oliveira before having a chance to fight for the belt.
“Gaethje wants to fight for the title,” Tsarukyan said. “It makes sense to fight with me because nobody gonna give him title fight, it’s not gonna be fair. He gotta beat me or Oliveira to get a title fight.”
