Former interim lightweight champion, Justin Gaethje may be preoccupied with a barnburner against the surging, Dan Hooker at UFC 313 over the course of five rounds, however, the veteran finisher still plans to secure his “dream” fight with current champion, Islam Makhachev as soon as after the event.
Gaethje, the current number three ranked lightweight contender, is booked to return to action next month in the co-headliner of UFC 313 in Las Vegas, taking on the surging Kiwi striker, Hooker in a potential title-eliminator over the course of five rounds.
Set to feature for the first time since dropping the symbolic BMF championship last year at the high-profile UFC 300 event, Gaethje would suffer a hellacious fifth round, buzzer-beating knockout defeat to former featherweight kingpin, Max Holloway in a surefire Knockout of the Year award winner.
Justin Gaethje reveals plans for fight with Islam Makhachev after UFC 313
And maintaining recently that if he suffers a similar fate in the future as his stoppage loss to Holloway that he would likely hang up his gloves, former WSOF kingpin, Gaethje still hopes to land himself a title chance against pound-for-pound pacesetter, Islam Makhachev — whom he claims he matches up better with that he did against his coach, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I wanna fight (Islam) Makhachev,” Justin Gaethje replied to a user on his YouTube channel who asked who his dream opponent was. “He’s the champ — and I do believe that is a better matchup for me than Khabib (Nurmagomedov) [was].”
Attempting to unify the lightweight crowns against Makhachev’s close friend, Nurmagomedov back in 2020 in Abu Dhabi, Gaethje was stopped in the second round by the Russian star, who submitted him with an eventual triangle choke, before calling time on his own combat sports career.