Six weeks faraway from his brutal knockout loss at UFC 300, Justin Gaethje is already again within the health club.
After claiming the BMF title with a sensational second-round head-kick KO towards Dustin Poirier final summer time, ‘The Spotlight’ grew to become the primary man to defend the bragging rights belt. That includes on the promotion’s landmark occasion on April 13, Gaethje stepped contained in the Octagon with former featherweight champion Max Holloway and delivered an instantaneous basic.
Sadly, issues wouldn’t go Gaethje’s method as the previous interim titleholder suffered a brutal buzzer-beating knockout, ending his quick run with the BMF belt and successfully taking him out of the light-weight title image in the intervening time.
Lower than two months faraway from the four-minute and 49-second conflict, Justin Gaethje is already attempting to get again into the swing of issues, courtesy of a video clip shared on the fan favorites’ Instagram.
“Attempting to get again within the routine, ” he wrote.
What’s subsequent for Justin Gaethje?
We’re nonetheless a good distance off from seeing Justin Gaethje again contained in the Octagon as he beforehand advised MMA Hangout that he wished to take at the least six months off earlier than leaping again into full-on coaching.
“Metaphorically, I might be prepared tomorrow, however bodily, I do wish to maintain myself,” Gaethje mentioned. “I do suppose that repeated concussions, with me going to sleep like that, me receiving that shot, it could be silly for me to leap again into coaching anytime earlier than 180 days.
“I may do cardio, I can keep in form, that’s what I wish to try to do — particularly [with] the older I get, the tougher it’s to get again to the most effective form of my life, so I wish to keep energetic. Clearly, the bodily contact goes to be restricted for fairly a while, simply because I wish to protect myself. … I feel six months, at the least, earlier than I get again to taking photographs. However that doesn’t say that I gained’t be coaching the entire time” (h/t MMA Preventing).
Who he faces in his inevitable return will in the end come right down to how issues play out on the high of the division over the subsequent a number of months.
On Saturday, June 1, reigning light-weight world champion Islam Makhachev is scheduled to defend his title towards two-time Gaethje opponent Dustin Poirier within the UFC 302 headliner. It’s going to seemingly be Poirier’s closing shot at gold as ‘The Diamond’ has already been speaking about retirement following the struggle — win or lose.
Ought to Makhachev survive ‘The Diamond,’ he’ll seemingly discover himself paired up with No. 1 ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan this October when the UFC makes its annual fall pit cease in Abu Dhabi.
How these two fights shake out will decide what comes subsequent for Gaethje and ‘The Spotlight’ weapons for another shot on the 155-pound crown earlier than laying down his personal gloves.
