Justin Gaethje said it would be “foolish” to return to training in less than six months, after being knocked out by Max Holloway at the UFC 300.
On April 13, featherweight icon Holloway moved up to lightweight to challenge Gaethje for the ‘Baddest Motherf***er’ title. The Hawaiian put on a clinic for five rounds before knocking out the American in the last second of the fight, with one of the greatest submissions in UFC history.
The result apparently cost Gaethje a shot at the lightweight title in his next fight. However, the 35-year-old acknowledged that the division is moving quickly and that he could still face the winner of June’s title fight between Islam Makachev and Dustin Poirier.
“Metaphorically, I might be ready tomorrow, but physically I want to take care of myself,” Gaethje said in The Dan Le Batard Show this week.
“I really think that the repeated concussions, me going to sleep like that, me getting that injection… It would be foolish for me to return to training at any time before the 180 days.
“I could do cardio, I could get in shape, that’s what I want to try to do. Especially the older I get, the harder it is to get back into the best shape of my life, so I want to stay active. Obviously physical contact will be limited for a long time, just because I want to preserve myself.
“I think [it will be] at least six months before taking photos again. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be training all the time.”
Gaethje seemed to establish himself as the No. 1 contender at lightweight when he knocked out Poirier in July, only to face Holloway. Since then, Poirier has rebounded by knocking out Benoit Saint-Denis and, in a strange turn of events, will challenge Makhachev while Gaethje faces an uncertain future at 155 pounds.
Poirier and Gaethje are former interim lightweight champions and have failed to win the undisputed title twice. Poirier lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019 and Charles Oliveira in 2021, while Gaethje lost to Khabib in 2020 and Oliveira in 2022. Poirier and Gaethje were submitted in each of those fights.
“It’s a crazy game,” Gaethje said. “Let’s see how this Dustin [and] Makhachev’s fight continues. Crazy game.”
