Justin Gaethje will have to defend his BMF title against Max Holloway before challenging Islam Makhachev. He will be defending his BMF title this weekend at UFC 300 with the whole world watching to see what will happen. UFC 300 has so much talent that this is only the 3rd fight on the card. Not even a co-main event. Talking about the event and being on UFC 300 Gaethje went on to say to Justin Barrasso of Si.com;
“I’m a huge fan of this sport,” said Gaethje. “If I was not fighting on this card, I would be in attendance. I don’t see a better card on pay-per-view. We’re starting off with [Cody] Garbrandt and [Deiveson] Figueiredo. For that time to be the first fight [of the early prelims], it’s going to be crazy. It’s a fan’s dream.”
Justin Gaethje Rejected Title Fight
Justin Gaethje is now turning 35 and is doing everything he can to pursue one last title shot. He explained he has to do everything he possibly can to make sure he is next for the belt. If he can defend his belt against Holloway, it will be incredibly difficult to say he isn’t next to face the champ. When speaking about the matchup against Holloway he went on to explain;
“Any time I’m going into a fight, it’s the most exciting thing for me,” said Justin Gaethje “It’s a monumental card. I’m excited to fight Max. I’m a performer, and I’m excited to perform.”
Alex Volkanovski stepped in to fight Makhachev on short notice for Oliveira. Volakanovski would not be able to get the belt due to losing to the champion. Justin Gaethje revealed he was asked to step in first to face the champion first. Explaining the reason he rejected the opportunity to fight for the title he went on to say;
Smart Move
“To perform like I do, I need a full camp to fight anybody,” said Justin Gaethje. “When Oliveira got hurt, it was only a couple weeks out, and the fight was in a different country. I would have been asking too much of myself to do that. That’s not something I recommend any fighter would do. I know I fought Tony Ferguson [in May of 2020 for the interim title] as a late replacement, but I was also very confident that I was ready. This time, I wasn’t training for anything specifically. I wasn’t going to give my shot away by taking that risk.
“Hindsight’s 20/20. Before I took this fight, I certainly didn’t get any kind of answer that I was going to be fighting for the belt. In this sport, the longer you sit out, the more you let other people step in front of you. So this is a fight I had to take, especially at the time when I took it.”
Max Holloway is moving back up to lightweight for the first time since 2019 when he moved down to featherweight. His last match at this weight was a defeat to lightweight title contender Dustin Poirier. Dustin Poirier was the fighter that Gaethje was able to defeat in July 2023 to become BMF Champion. Both these challengers are on a 2 fight winning streak however, only one fighter can move a step forward to getting a shot at the title.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
