Claiming this month how he would consider retirement if he’s overlooked for a title shot in his return, Justin Gaethje was urged to put some serious thought into that claim by Dana White off the back of last night’s UFC 317 headliner.
Gaethje, who returned triumphantly at UFC 313 earlier this year, returned to winning ways in an impressive unanimous decision win over two-fight rival, Rafael Fiziev in their short-notice rematch in March.
However, this month the Arizona native claimed he would seriously weigh-up hanging up his gloves from combat sports if he was not offered a title fight in his return, having missed out on last night’s UFC 317 vacant championship affair.
“He [Justin Gaethje] said, ‘If I’m not going to fight for the title, I’m just going to hang up my gloves,’” His manager, Ali Abdelaziz revealed earlier this month.
Dana White urges Justin Gaethje to consider retirement
And catching wind of those comments during his post-event interview with assembled media, UFC leader, White insisted if Gaethje was feeling that way, he should “probably” follow through and end his combat sports career.
Listen, everybody has their opinions on, listen, if you’re thinking about retiring, you know how I feel about that, you should probably retire,” Dana White said.
“We love Justin Gaethje and Justin Gaethje did step up and he’s been an exciting and fun fighter to have here in the UFC but to say unless you give me a title shot otherwise I’m retiring, that’s pretty whacky.”
To boot for the veteran Arizona star, newly-crowned champion, Topuria seems less than interested in fighting him either following his win over Charles Oliveira in brutal fashion.
Welcoming a showdown with the polarizing, Paddy Pimblett, Topuria claimed the lightweight division needed new blood — before questioning if fans even wanted to see him fight the ex-interim gold holder.
“Fighting against Justin Gaethje, I don’t think that’s gonna be something exciting for the fans,” Ilia Topuria told ESPNMMA after his win at UFC 317. “We need new blood in the division. We need new faces that come hungrier than the guys that we are used to seeing in the past.”
