Justin Gaethje, who co-headlined UFC 313 earlier this month, recorded his second win over Rafael Fiziev, beating the Kazakh grappler via an unanimous decision in three rounds. It has been speculated since then that Gaethje will be pitted against Dustin Poirier next.
However, the fight may not materialize if Gaethje has his way. And the former interim lightweight champion’s reason for reluctance to get into the cage with Poirier has attracted praise from UFC veteran Chael Sonnen.
Gaethje and Poirier have a bit of a history. They have faced each other twice. Poirier won their opening encounter via a TKO in the fourth round at UFC on Fox 29 in 2018. Gaethje managed to level the score at UFC 291 in 2023 via a second-round KO. Gaethje stopped Poirier with a brutal high kick, snatching the vacant, symbolic BMF title.
Fight fans would love to see a third match-up between the rivals, especially since Poirier, 36, is on the verge of retiring from the sport. However, Gaethje stressed he was not willing to fight Poirier again, citing a very poignant reason.
“I’ve stated many times that I don’t think either one of our families deserves that. We’re 1-1. I’m OK with it. If he’s OK with it, then no,” said Gaethje after his win over Fiziev.
Sonnen commended Gaethje for this stance. “Dustin Poirier plans to fight one more time. So Justin Gaethje coming out now and saying, Dustin and I are one and one. I can live with that, and I hope he can,” Sonnen said on Instagram.
“It’s an honorable move now because Justin could have pulled a scumbag move and started putting his finger in Dustin’s chest. Knowing behind the scenes Dustin’s already got business going with Max [Holloway],” added the UFC veteran.
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Keen to fight for gold, Gaethje has instead called for Islam Makhachev. Armed with the experience of having taken on the lightweight champ’s mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov once, Gaethje feels confident of a victory.
In his opinion, he will match up much better with Makhachev than he did against Nurmagomedov in their 2020 title unification clash.
“I mean, I wanna fight for the belt, obviously. It’s a much different matchup than I just had. They [the UFC] tried to give me a donut, but I need to get back to running if I’m gonna fight Makhachev,” Gaethje had said after UFC 313.
Gaethje previously held gold as the interim champion in the lightweight division. He had earned that belt by defeating Tony Ferguson five years ago.
