Justin Gaethje may not be next in line for a shot at Islam Makhachev’s UFC lightweight title, but “Highlight” will be featured in an upcoming “BMF” title fight against Max Holloway UFC 300 this April. It’s a tremendous consolation prize for the most violent man in mixed martial arts (MMA).
The pairing may seem odd, but Holloway has competed at 155 pounds before and has no issues moving up from featherweight to challenge the best in the world. Gaethje never imagined fighting Holloway, but after recently bringing up “Blessed” in a discussion about fighters who could compete for the “BMF” title the wheels started to churn. Holloway is widely regarded as one of the most game fighters in the sport today so Gaethje certainly wasn’t speaking out of pocket.
Gaethje believes that his comment about Holloway ultimately played a role in the promotion setting up their fight for the massive UFC 300 card going down this spring.
“I kind of talked this into existence on accident,” Gaethje recently told Kevin Iole. “I said, ‘I didn’t want to punch Max Holloway, but he’s also a guy that could fight for a BMF belt.’ That turns out into going to be having to punch Max Holloway. It’s the name of the game, and I am the best in the world at creating damage.
“The last two fights, I have been very tactical and very, very, very methodical in my approach. I think that obviously I’m going to continue to do that, and if I can do that, then it’s going to be very hard for Max to overwhelm me and put me in positions where I shouldn’t be.”
Gaethje, who is 0-2 in UFC title fights, is coming off a memorable head-kick knockout win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 291 this past July to claim the “BMF” title. “Highlight” had defeated Rafael Fiziev in a Fight of the Night performance before that. While those two performances would typically be good enough to score Gaethje another shot at UFC gold he will fight Holloway at UFC 300 first.
“It’s always funny how it works out,” Gaethje said. “You always think it’s going to go one way, and you can never guess what’s going to happen with the UFC. Once the Oliveira and Tsarukyan fight got announced, I was really confident that I was going to get the Makhachev fight, because I figured, obviously there is nobody else to fight him. … I don’t know what’s going on. Some injury or something, but he’s not going to fight till June or July, I guess.
“I was under the impression that if not for sure a title eliminator, that the fight with Dustin Poirier was as much a title eliminator as this Tsarukyan and Oliveira fight is. Now, me fighting on the same card as those guys, I’m going to be obviously above them, all four of us – you know, me, Max, Tsaruykan, Oliveira, we all got a chance to stand out.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” he continued. “I think it’s second-best obviously if they lined me up with Makhachev – that’s the best-case scenario. Second best scenario is I get to fight for it, and that’s the scenario I’m in. I get to go in there, I get to stand out. There’s going to be two contenders coming out that night. So, we’ll see what happens after that.”
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This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
