Justin Gaethje’s incredible UFC career could be set to come to a shocking and disappointing end after being snubbed by Ilia Topuria.
This past Saturday, Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira clashed in the UFC 317 main event for the vacant lightweight title after Islam Makhachev gave it up to pursue his welterweight title goal.
Topuria continued his historic run with a brutal first round knockout of Oliveira, leaving the Brazilian fan favorite unconscious in the center of the Octagon after landing a huge right hand left hook combination.
Immediately after the fight, Topuria was faced with his potential first title defense as Paddy Pimblett made his way into the Octagon for an impromptu face off.
Justin Gaethje could be set to retire after being snubbed by Topuria
Ahead of the UFC 317 title fight announcement, longtime contender Justin Gaethje felt as though he was in a prime position to fight in a vacant title fight.
However, after finding out that the fight would be between Topuria and Oliveira, Gaethje was left seething to find out he was missing out.
And with that, ‘The Highlight’ went one step further and claimed that if he isn’t given the next lightweight title fight that he would retire from the sport.
During the UFC 317 post-fight press conference, UFC boss Dana White reacted to his ‘wacky’ retirement ultimatum, suggesting that he retires if he is already considering it.
To make matters worse, ‘El Matador’ explained just hours after the fight why he isn’t interested in a fight against Gaethje, disagreeing that Gaethje is a UFC legend and should be next.
“Por favor, por favor. Justin Gaethje, no, no. So the only thing I just realized is that you don’t like the guy because I don’t know why you want him to put him against me,” Topuria said on About Last Fight with the UFC.
“Fighting against Justin Gaethje I don’t think that’s gonna be something exciting for the fans because as I said, we need new blood in the division. We need new faces, new guys that come hungrier than the guys that we’re used to seeing in the past like Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira,” Topuria continued in an interview with ESPN MMA.
“I want to bring new faces to the game.”
Topuria vs Pimblett labeled a ‘sheep to slaughter’ by lightweight contender
With Topuria’s next fight likely to be against ‘The Baddy’, the opening odds have been released and Topuria is a huge -600 favorite to retain his title.
And with that, the fight has been labeled ‘a sheep to slaughter’ by longtime lightweight contender, Beneil Dariush, who is confused by the potential matchmaking.