Lightweight contender Justin Gaethje is unhappy with the UFC for announcing he’ll be fighting on May 9 without speaking to him first.
Gaethje will face Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title at UFC 249 next month. The pair were originally supposed to meet on April 18. Gaethje stepped up on late notice to face ‘El Cucuy’ after 155lb champion Khabib Nurmagmedov fell out of the bout due to the ongoing global pandemic and subsequent travel issues.
One week out from the event, Disney/ESPN bosses stepped in and asked UFC president Dana White to shut down the card. This decision was triggered after the governor of California took issue with the card taking place at the Tachi Palace which is in his state.
Last week the UFC announced the card has been rescheduled for May 9, although according to Gaethje he wasn’t made aware of this causing an issue between him and the MMA promotion.
“I saw that Dana [White] had said that he was having this card May 9 and I was the main event, and I was like, ‘What the hell?’ To be honest with you, I was a little bit upset, because I’ve always told them I don’t want to fight on short training camps,” Gaethje said to ESPN. “I don’t blame them. But, they had the assumption that because I was gonna do April 18, I would be fine to do it May 9. But those are totally different circumstances for me, and so I really wasn’t happy about it.”
Despite his gripe with the UFC, Gaethje says he was always going to accept the fight as the chance to fight for the interim title was too big to pass up, he said. “For a world title, you fight on a day’s notice. It doesn’t matter.” (Transcribed by BJPenn.com)
Is Justin Gaethje right to be mad at the UFC?