Gaethje 'was really confident' he'd get Makhachev fight
Color Justin Gaethje surprised that he's not getting a UFC lightweight title shot.
Gaethje said Thursday he thought he would be next in line to challenge Islam Makhachev for the undisputed 155-pound belt after the promotion booked a No. 1 contender bout between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan. But instead, Gaethje agreed to defend his BMF championship against former featherweight champ Max Holloway at UFC 300 on April 13.
"You can never guess what's gonna happen with the UFC. I was expecting - once the Oliveira and Tsarukyan fight got announced, I was really confident that I was gonna get the Makhachev fight," Gaethje told MMA reporter Kevin Iole. "I figured, obviously, there's nobody else to fight him."
UFC CEO Dana White said earlier in January that Makhachev was recovering from an injury and that he would face the Oliveira-Tsarukyan winner this summer, leaving Gaethje as the odd man out in the title conversation. Makhachev wasn't on the same page and responded by saying he wanted to fight Gaethje in June and then the Oliveira-Tsarukyan winner in November. A week later, though, White announced Gaethje-Holloway for the landmark event.
Now, Gaethje views his matchup against Holloway being on the same card as Oliveira-Tsarukyan as a mini-tournament that'll decide the next title challenger.
"We all got a chance to stand out," Gaethje said. "I think it's a great opportunity. ... They line me up with Makhachev, that's the best-case scenario. Second-best scenario is I get to fight for it. And that's the scenario I'm in. I get to go in there, I get to stand out, and there's gonna be two contenders coming out that night. We'll see what happens after that."
Gaethje is coming off a knockout win in a rematch with Dustin Poirier last July to capture the vacant BMF belt. Many - including Gaethje himself - viewed that as a No. 1 contender bout because Makhachev was scheduled to defend the title against Oliveira at the time. But Makhachev went on to fight featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski instead, and Oliveira is still in the running for a title shot.