Justin “the Highlight” Gaethje, was expecting a call from UFC that he will be facing Michael Chandler on 15 May but the UFC instead booked Oliveira vs Chandler for the vacant lightweight belt.
Gaethje went on to twitter and posted his reactions.
I woke up yesterday to train for a matchup with Chandler on May 15th expecting a bout agreement any moment. Today that is not the case, I don’t know what I do yet but I like this feeling. It was a good day at sparring practice.
— Justin Gaethje 🇺🇸 (@Justin_Gaethje) March 20, 2021
His sparring partner might have a long day, poor guy. In all seriousness, it sucks for Gaethje to not have a fight since the Khabib loss, since he pretty much gives an exciting fight whenever he is in the Octagon, hence the nickname “The Highlight”.
All he needs to focus right now is to get a win and stay active. He does not have a big argument for an immediate title shot since he just loss his last fight. Although there is no arguing that Gaethje is still a top 5 contender, he might even be the second best right now, behind Poirier.
He could face either Dan Hooker just to stay relevant and Hooker is the highest ranked fighter he could face right now. One other opponent that would interest him is a fight with Nate Diaz, plus it comes with a huge payday as well.
Justin Gaethje was the guy who stopped Tony Ferguson’s long win streak, but one thing fans hate is that we never got to see the cursed Khabib vs Tony fight. But you cannot blame Gaethje for it, he executed the game plan well and got the job done.
The UFC should also give Gaethje a big name since he pretty much deserves it. You can never say he is a boring fighter since other than the Khabib loss, all of his UFC fights either won the Fight of the night and Performance of the Night bonus which is CRAZY if you think about it.
