Justin Gaethje has been out of action since being knocked out by Max Holloway at UFC 300, but that doesn’t mean he’s not itching to get back in the mix.
Gaethje, the former UFC interim lightweight and BMF champ, set a self-imposed six month sabbatical to recover from that KO, though he’s finding it hard to make it to the finish line.
“I said I was going to take six months before I sparred. It’s been four, and I’m going to have a difficult time making it six months,” Gaethje admitted to media during the Noche UFC/UFC 306 Fight Week. “I’m itching, but I’m going to give it another month before I spar then get back into camp. We’ll see. Coach, manager, they’ll decide.”
Whatever the decision, Justin Gaethje, widely known as the most violent man in MMA, has a list of names to get himself back in the mix at lightweight. One of those is City Kickboxing’s Dan Hooker.
“Dan Hooker, I have a list. I think Hooker, [Charles] Oliveira, [Dustin] Poirier, and [Alexander] Volkanovski is a list of four people I think, any of those would do for me what I need to do to get back in the picture,” stated Gaethje.
Oliveira was recently announced for a fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 309, while Poirier has fought Gaethje twice before, and said he’ll likely retire after one more fight. “The Diamond” is coming off a title fight loss against Islam Makhachev, and a rubber match with Gaethje — their series is tied 1-1 — would seem to make all the sense in the world.
That said, Justin Gaethje himself would be just fine if it never happens.
“I mean I walked out of the octagon, we’re one and one. I told him, I said ‘let’s not do it again.’ I’m not saying I don’t want to or whatever, but that was a conversation we had that night because we’re 1-1, and we’re taking years from each other’s lives.”
Still, Justin Gaethje is only ever seemingly a fight away from being back in the mix, and Dan Hooker does seem to be the name most mentioned by “The Highlight,” who has been focused on golf these past few months. “I’m not out of it. I’m not out of it right now, I’m not out of it tomorrow. This sport is so crazy. Poirier lost to me, then he got to fight for a belt,” he noted. “Just have to stay in there and be a guy that is capable of taking these fights, which, I’m ranked number three, Hooker just moved to five so that’s not the worst option. Anything can happen.”