There’s a whole lot of UFC fighters with better things to do than fight in the UFC, and you can add Justin Gaethje to that list.
Gaethje won the biggest fight of his career back in June, smashing Ilia Topuria to capture the lightweight title, a longtime career goal. Now Gaethje says he’s considering retirement — a story we’ve heard before — if he doesn’t get a superfight next.
According to UFC CEO Dana White, after five months of waiting, it’s time for Gaethje to decide if he’ll retire. White discussed
Alexander Volkanovski as a potential opponent on the Jim Rome Show but suggested Gaethje was the one in the driver’s seat when it came to what’s next.
“I would pretty much do anything for Alexander Volkanovski at this point in his career,” White said. “Great guy, great champion, great athlete. The big question is, what does Justin Gaethje wanna do? Justin’s coming off this unbelievable win at the White House, and he’s an incredible athlete too. What does he wanna do next?”
White revealed that Gaethje has been out enjoying life after his win, and has a lot of positive things going on that don’t involve getting punched and grappled all day in the gym.
“They do that Fanatics Fest in New York, and they have this athletic competition that you have to go through to win. One year it was a Ferrari, and then I don’t remember what it was last year. But yeah, guys like Brady and all these NFL guys [enter], Justin Gaethje won that thing. And then this new golf league that [Barstool Sports owner] Dave Portnoy’s got. I heard that Gaethje’s doing well on that too.”
White admitted he wasn’t sure what would happen with Gaethje but committed to figuring it out.
“I don’t know yet,” he said on Justin’s fighting future. “He’s in the middle of this golf thing that Portnoy is doing. We’re talking to him, but we’ll figure it out. He’s gonna have to pull the trigger one way or the other, see if he wants to retire or continue to fight.”
Gaethje’s got three options: an Ilia Topuria rematch, an Arman Tsarukyan fight, or the Alexander Volkanovski champion vs. champion bout. All good options, but we’d love to see a few more actual No. 1 contenders getting their shot, y’know?
Actually, Gaethje’s got four options, the fourth being delay his return so he can spend more time holding onto the belt he just won. Pull an Islam Makhachev and say Ilia Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan have to fight to determine the true No. 1 contender.
Let’s pray that’s not the route he goes, but it seems like a more common route these days.
