Justin Gaethje is sick of waiting for his chance at the lightweight title. Although his last fight was a title shot, against then-champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Gaethje lost, he still feels that he should have been further up the rankings than Michael Chandler.
With the #1 contender decider set for this weekend, and timing almost perfect for a title challenge against the winner of Poirier vs Oliveira next month, Justin Gaethje says he’ll “riot” if he doesn’t get his chance.
Gaethje Promises to “Riot” if He Doesn’t Get a Title Shot Next
“That’s my belief. I’m No. 2. Who else? There’s absolutely nobody else. If not, we riot.”
Of course, there’s a new name in the lightweight division who is turning heads. Islam Makhachev, heir apparent to Khabib’s hefty legacy, has commenced a serious assault on the lightweight division. When Daniel Cormier claimed that Islam might even leapfrog Gaethje for a title shot, “The Highlight” replied swiftly and brutally via Twitter.
“Suck it harder” Gaethje explained his reaction at the UFC 268 media day. ““[It was] incredibly biased.
At the end of the day, I love Cormier. I felt it was my job that night and call it out, cause that’s what I saw. Outside of that, it doesn’t matter.
I think he knows that he should be in an unbiased mindset when he’s doing this, and that probably, I would hope, that’s important to him.”
Gaethje fully expects his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, who also manages many of the UFC’s biggest stars, to deliver for him should be prevail against Michael Chandler this weekend.
““I’ve never talked to him about it. Never brought it up, never had it brought up to me. He works for me and he works for them, but they’re different businesses. He needs to run each one accordingly.
If I would have seen him be like, ‘yeah D.C., I agree!’ I probably would have been pretty f*cking pissed off, but he knows that wouldn’t be the professional thing to do.
He’s a great manager. He’s professional. Loyalty runs a long ways. I’ve probably been with him the longest, so we’ll see how this goes.” Abdelaziz agrees, at least in public.
“I think Justin Gaethje, if he beats Chandler and I’m sure he will, he’s next for the title. Justin Gaethje should have been fighting for the title but I understand the promoter Dana White want to erase the Khabib phenomenon and you can’t have two guys who fought Khabib, coming off a loss fighting for the title.
All Justin has to go ahead, put the lights out of this little guy [Michael Chandler] and he’s going to be next for the title.”
Do you think Justin Gaethje deserves another shot at the lightweight belt? Let us know in the comments.
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