With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement finally official, the promotion announced that Charles Oliveira would face Michael Chandler for the vacant 155-pound belt at UFC 262 in May. Meanwhile, a trilogy between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor appears imminent, and Beneil Dariush will lock horns with Tony Ferguson on the UFC 262 undercard.
At the moment, Gaethje doesn’t seem to have a clear direction in the weight class.
“Who knows, man,” Gaethje told Full Reptile. “I can’t talk about it a lot right now—I’m sure me talking about it [in the past] is the reason I’m here. Who knows? Maybe I pissed someone off. I don’t know.
“All I know is since I was 12, 13 years old, I listened to Dana White do interviews and explain what he wanted in a fighter, and I’m that motherf—-er.”
Gaethje hasn’t competed since losing to Nurmagomedov via second-round submission in the UFC 254 headliner last October. Prior to that, the former World Series of Fighting Champion had scored successive KO/TKO triumphs over Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Edson Barboza and James Vick.
Gaethje recently revealed that he was in talks to face Chandler, but that bout was apparently passed over to book the ex-Bellator title holder against Oliveira. In the past, Gaethje hasn’t hesitated to be vocal in his criticism of the direction of the division.
“If I get disrespected, it’s gonna be hurtful because I really bought into what [Dana] talks about. So it’ll hurt, because I feel like a company man from day one,” Gaethje said. “I don’t ever want to go anywhere else, I don’t want to fight anywhere else. But my principles are the most important thing to me. We’ll see what happens.”