Playing matchmaker during his time away from the Octagon, fan-favorite UFC star Justin Gaethje has put together his own dream fight card — featuring a stunning main event.
Gaethje, a former interim lightweight champion in the promotion, has been snubbed for the incoming vacant title clash at the end of this month in the headliner of UFC 317.
Instead, Gaethje will have to watch Charles Oliveira competing during International Fight Week against former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria for lightweight glory. This appears to have been a bitter pill to swallow for Gaethje.
Earleir this week, Gaethje’s manager warned that if he is overlooked for another title charge in his immediate return, he will most likely hang up his gloves from combat sports.
However, putting on his matchmaker hat this week, Gaethje put together a stunning, dream fight card — stacked from top to bottom.
To begin, he paired a prime Ronda Rousey against a relatively inexperienced Amanda Nunes. As expected later on that card, he would pit Khabib Nurmagomedov against rival Conor McGregor.
And in a co-main event setting, Gaethje opted for the trilogy fight between old rivals, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. But where does he see himself? And who’s he fighting?
Proposing a stunning four-man deathmatch, Gaethje claimed Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway, and he should all gang up to take out Islam Makhachev — before fighting each other.
“In the four-way death match, me, Poirier, Holloway, and Makhachev,” Gaethje said on the Makeshift Project podcast. “We could definitely team up real quick, and then we’ll see,” he noted in jest.
Already having faced three of those names — Khabib, Poirier, and Holloway during his Octagon tenure, Gaethje notably missed out on a planned scrap with Irish superstar McGregor.
Gaethje’s failed 2020 fight with McGregor
While he has failed to ever capture undisputed lightweight spoils in the Octagon, Gaethje did win interim gold, as well as the symbolic BMF championship to boot.
But despite sharing the cage with many a mighty lightweight champion during his decorated run, Gaethje seems to have missed out on the biggest matchup in the lightweight division.
Back in 2020, McGregor’s stunning 40-second win over common foe Donald Cerrone put the Irishman on a collision course with Gaethje.
Initially meant to headline International Fight Week that summer of the same year, the COVID-19 pandemic would ultimately nix the stunning, dream pairing of Gaethje and McGregor.
And following reports from then-ESPN reporter, Ariel Helwani, of the targeted fight, McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, revealed that they indeed held talks to face off with Gaethje.
“Yeah, [the Justin Gaethje fight in July] was one of the ones that was being talked about – that was right up there,” Kavanagh was quoted as saying back then.
A showdown with Gaethje following his 2020 return was earmarked as a potential, rather sizeable banana peel for the Dublin striker if he did actually booked the clash.
