Justin Gaethje: 'I'm done doing sh*t' for UFC without appropriate appreciation, pay
Justin Gaethje: 'I'm done doing sh*t' for UFC without appropriate appreciation, pay
Justin Gaethje does not appreciate the UFC leaving him out of the lightweight title picture.
Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) did the UFC a solid by defending his BMF title against Max Holloway on their historic 300th pay-per-view event. He wound up getting knocked out by Holloway at UFC 300, but rebounded with a win over Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313.
Prior to Islam Makhachev vacating his UFC lightweight title, he was open to a fresh matchup against Gaethje over former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. However, when Belal Muhammad lost his welterweight title to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315, Makhachev opted to relinquish his belt for a move up to 170 pounds.
With the UFC lightweight title now vacant, Gaethje expected to be one half of the title fight. Instead, the promotion opted to match up Topuria against Charles Oliveira in the UFC 317 headliner on June 28.
"They owe me a championship fight," Gaethje said on "The Makeshift Podcast." "I'm 3-1 in my last four. They came to my house begging me to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300. I consider that an exhibition fight. I don't mean that the loss is not on my record. I mean it had nothing to do with rankings. In the time that I did that, Dustin Poirier, who I just beat, got a good win over (Benoit) Saint Denis and then fought for the belt
"Since I've won (vs. Fiziev), the champion has been saying he wants to fight me. So they could have easily set that up, but they didn't. Then he vacates, and then Oliveira is 2-2 in his last fights, already has a loss to Makhachev, and they bring a brand-new guy in, and I get f*cked again. So I'm not going to fight any of these motherf*ckers for fun unless they pay me so much more money."
Ali Abdelaziz revealed that Gaethje will consider retirement if he doesn't get the next title shot. "The Highlight" continued to vent his frustration towards the UFC.
"I'm the most consistent guy," Gaethje said. "I think anybody that's ever performed for their company and been as consistent as an employee for their company gets a Christmas bonus, gets a thank you, get a 'Good f*cking job.' Nah – I'm done doing sh*t here. I love fighting for the UFC and I'd never want to fight somewhere else, but I'm not just going to throw my legacy away for anybody."
For Gaethje, it's title shot or bust.
"I'm waiting for them to announce it," Gaethje said of a presumed title shot. "(Oliveira is) 2-2, I'm 3-1. What do you want me to do? Not my fault (Dan) Hooker dropped out. (Arman) Tsarukyan should have got it, but he f*cked himself. That's his fault."
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