Six weeks faraway from his brutal knockout loss at UFC 300, Justin Gaethje is already again within the fitness center.
After claiming the BMF title with a sensational second-round head-kick KO in opposition to Dustin Poirier final summer time, ‘The Spotlight’ turned 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 immediate traditional.
Sadly, issues wouldn’t go Gaethje’s approach as the previous interim titleholder suffered a brutal buzzer-beating knockout, ending his brief run with the BMF belt and successfully taking him out of the light-weight title image in the meanwhile.
Lower than two months faraway from the four-minute and 49-second struggle, Justin Gaethje is already making an attempt 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 very least six months off earlier than leaping again into full-on coaching.
“Metaphorically, I could possibly be prepared tomorrow, however bodily, I do need to handle myself,” Gaethje mentioned. “I do assume that repeated concussions, with me going to sleep like that, me receiving that shot, it will be silly for me to leap again into coaching anytime earlier than 180 days.
“I might do cardio, I can keep in form, that’s what I need to try to do — particularly [with] the older I get, the tougher it’s to get again to the perfect form of my life, so I need to keep energetic. Clearly, the bodily contact goes to be restricted for fairly a while, simply because I need to protect myself. … I believe six months, at the very least, earlier than I get again to taking photographs. However that doesn’t say that I received’t be coaching the entire time” (h/t MMA Preventing).
Who he faces in his inevitable return will finally come all the way 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 in opposition to two-time Gaethje opponent Dustin Poirier within the UFC 302 headliner. It would probably be Poirier’s remaining shot at gold as ‘The Diamond’ has already been speaking about retirement following the combat — win or lose.
Ought to Makhachev survive ‘The Diamond,’ he’ll probably 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.
