Justin Gaethje only has one goal in mind following his win last month.
It looks like Gaethje’s plans align with Ilia Topuria’s following a recent update on the lightweight champion targeting the UFC White House event for his return.
‘The Highlight’ became a two-time interim titleholder last month to establish an enormous unification clash later this yr.
Before getting announced because the foremost event of UFC 324, Gaethje had made a retirement ultimatum that put him in a troublesome spot with the promotion.
After his decision to attend for a title shot paid off, essentially the most exciting fighter within the history of the promotion provided an update on how he desires to end his profession.
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Justin Gaethje plans on being done by June next yr but going out on a win could see him leave earlier
Justin Gaethje’s coach said that UFC 324 could’ve been his final fight if he’d been beaten by Paddy Pimblett within the foremost event.
Trevor Wittman told ESPN MMA that he wasn’t afraid to confess that this was their last run, together with his fighter’s health coming first.
Gaethje himself told Zach Gelb in a recent interview that he’d be a “idiot” to think the tip of his profession isn’t across the corner before providing an actual timeframe that he knows he’ll be done by.
“There’s little doubt we’re towards the tip but I don’t know,” he said.” I feel by mid next yr, 2027, I one hundred pc shall be done.”
Gaethje said he was ‘glad’ he lost to Max Holloway in devastating fashion but one other defeat, especially one like that, could be the sign that he must step away.
Nonetheless, ‘The Highlight’ also told Gelb that if he’s in a position to overcome an enormous challenge like his title unification bout with Ilia Topuria, it wouldn’t be the worst move to depart the game on a high.
“I might never state publicly that I’d be done after that but that may be a fight where if I accomplish that, if I’m successful, then it might not be a dumb idea to not do it again.”
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Daniel Cormier sent a warning to Justin Gaethje about fighting Ilia Topuria
Justin Gaethje responded to critics of his UFC 324 performance by arguing that he specifically fought in a more aggressive and reckless way due to the opponent that was stood in front of him.
His argument that he won’t fight every foe the identical way hasn’t stopped fans from caring about his matchup with Ilia Topuria.
Daniel Cormier warned Gaethje about fighting Topuria in a similar way to how he fought Max Holloway.
Gaethje himself has admitted that he made major mistakes in that fight and didn’t recognize how much danger he was in, which is unlikely to be the case when he faces someone like ‘El Matador’.