Justin Gaethje is so convinced that he deserves to be next in line at lightweight that he’s told his manager he’ll retire if he doesn’t get to fight the winner of the upcoming vacant title clash between Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveria.
“Justin Gaethje fight the (UFC 317) winner. He’s won three of his last four. He saved the UFC two times. They needed him and he was there,” Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz told Submission Radio. “The guy has done so much for the sport and if anyone says he doesn’t deserve it – He said, ‘If I’m not going to fight for the title then I’ll just hang up my gloves.’
“He’s a very principled guy. He really told me this yesterday. I was with him at the fight. He said, ‘If I’m not going to get a title shot, I feel disrespected. I love being a UFC fighter. I love the UFC, but I feel like the UFC has to love me back.’ He doesn’t feel the love right now.”
Demanding a title shot doesn’t always work out for fighters in the UFC, but Abdelaziz believes that Gaethje is a special case given what he’s done for the promotion over the years.
“At the end of the day, I think this guy, they love him. I think they will give him what he wanted,” Abdelaziz said. “But at the end of the day we have to see what happens first between Charles and Ilia.”
Given that the UFC doesn’t appear to be particularly eager to give current No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan a title shot after he withdrew from his previous opportunity at the start of the year, it does feel like the No.3 ranked Gaethje does have a good chance of being next in line.
That being said, Gaethje was submitted by Oliveira in his previous title challenge back in 2022, and Topuria is known to be interested in settling an old rivalry with the No.9 ranked Paddy Pimblett, so nothing is certain at this stage.
