Justin Gaethje needs a new opponent for UFC 313.
That’s because his original dance partner, Dan Hooker, broke his hand in training and was forced to withdraw from their pay-per-view (PPV) headliner on March 8 in Las Vegas. But anyone concerned that Gaethje might dip is “f—king crazy.”
“At six in the morning, I called JG, because I want to know what’s happening,” former UFC champion and current PPV commentator, Daniel Cormier, said on his YouTube channel. “Is there a preference? There are people that are already stepping up and saying, ‘I want the fight’. The significance of being in there against Justin Gaethje. But moving forward, Justin Gaethje is still fighting. I called him this morning, and my immediate question was, ‘Do you have any plans to not fight this weekend?’ He goes, ‘Are you f***ing crazy?’ That’s Justin Gaethje. He goes, ‘Are you crazy? Of course I’m fighting!’”
Multiple lightweights have volunteered to step up and battle “The Highlight.”
“So I asked JG, ‘Who do you want?’ He goes, ‘I don’t care, I’ll fight any of those guys.’ But for me, I want [Gaethje] vs. Renato Moicano,” Cormier continued. “I think that’s a fun fight. I get it, Moicano just lost to Islam Makhachev in the way that he did. There’s no knocking him for that. But JG is coming off a loss too, he got beat by Max Holloway. Why not match these two up? We know that ‘Money’ Moicano is always there to fight, we know that he’s willing to stand and trade with the best of them. We know that he possesses submission ability, and we know that he’s going to bring the show, and we know that Moicano is willing.”
Moicano and Gaethje are both coming off losses.
The promotion has yet to make an official announcement but will likely produce a new opponent before the end of the week, since UFC 313 is just around the corner. The March 8 fight card (see it here) is headlined by the light heavyweight title fight pitting Alex Pereira against top contender Magomed Ankalaev.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
