Justin Gaethje has an open wound on his neck.
“The Highlight” dismissed the screen shot as nothing more than an ingrown hair. But former UFC title challenger and current MMA analyst, Chael Sonnen, suggests Gaethje is “lying” about the condition ahead of the UFC 324 headliner on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas.
That said, the topic is not interesting to Sonnen and does not matter.
“Somewhere, the media picked up on this,” Sonnen said on YouTube. “Now, Justin Gaethje countered it to let you know that he doesn’t
have staph, it was an in ingrown hair. I’m not a doctor. I see staph all the time. I’ve got staph on my own arm right now, but looking at a picture and trying to tell what Justin Gaethje has. I don’t know what he has. He does not have an ingrown hair. That I do know. So he is lying about something, but is that interesting? Does that matter? Not to me.”
It could be interesting and matter to the doctors representing Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
“First off, will the fight go on?” Sonnen asked. “Is that a question we’re asking? I’m rather confident that it will. A general staph infection like a wrestler or grappler would get, it takes three days to solve something like this. Secondly, would it affect the fight because you’re talking about a medication taken? This is how I’m interpreting the question. No, I don’t think so. I also don’t know what it is that Justin has on his neck. I know it is not an ingrown hair.”
Gaethje battles No. 5-ranked contender Paddy Pimblett for the interim lightweight title.
“That’s my only concern is that he came out — the cover-up is always worse than the crime. So if he thinks he has an ingrown hair, let’s just say for example, I can tell you that’s not an ingrown hair, but if he genuinely thinks that, that’s not just a cover story, then it could be staph, which means it could spread. And when it’s this visible, it could be an issue. But I think that we’re talking about nothing.”
The 37 year-old Gaethje remains the betting underdog for UFC 324.
“So would it affect the odds of the Justin Gaethje fight? No,” Sonnen said. “This isn’t my opinion. This came out yesterday, DraftKings, the line has not budged. It didn’t budge anymore than when it got revealed that ‘Paddy the Baddy’ had lost a grappling match over the weekend. Could it turn into a thing? I would be very confident in telling you ‘no’ if I was confident that Gaethje doesn’t truly think that that’s an ingrown hair.”
Consider it just another “weird” day in combat sports.
