Justin Gaethje was reportedly “pissed” after being handed up for a light-weight title struggle with Ilia Topuria.
Instantly after saying that Islam Makhachev had vacated his 155-pound belt to maneuver up and problem newly minted welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena, Dana White revealed that former featherweight king Ilia Topuria would struggle Charles Oliviera at UFC 317 on June 29, the winner leaving Las Vegas as the subsequent light-weight world titleholder.
After profitable three straight in his division, together with a pair of victories over Rafael Fiziev, Gaethje figured he was the subsequent man in line for a shot on the gold.
Particularly contemplating Oliveira’s final two appearances contained in the Octagon resulted in a loss to Arman Tsarukyan and a choice win over perpetual punching bag Michael Chandler.
“He was pissed,” UFC play-by-play man, Jon Anik, stated of Gaethje on The Anik & Florian Podcast. “He appears like actually he was handed over in favor of Charles Oliveira for this chance towards Ilia Topuria and I feel what Justin Gaethje and his supervisor Ali Abdelaziz are in search of is just a few kind of assure that they are going to be subsequent as a result of it’s Might 19 and the excellent news for this Topuria-Oliveira struggle is that it’s June 28, it’s lower than six weeks away.”
Jon Anik thinks Justin Gaethje’s request for a ‘assured’ title struggle is affordable
With Worldwide Battle Week proper across the nook, chances are high the UFC is already eyeing potential challengers for the winner of Topuria vs. Oliveira. And with no clear-cut contender in place, other than Tsarukyan who’s nonetheless within the UFC canine home, Anik doesn’t suppose Gaethje’s request is all that unreasonable.
“I don’t suppose it’s a loopy request for Justin,” Anik continued. “Having achieved what he did towards Rafael Fiziev, staying on the struggle card, not preventing Dan Hooker, getting a win, distance from the UFC 300 end result — and by the best way, he fought at UFC 300 to assist the UFC when he might have fought for the undisputed championship at that cut-off date.
“So I wouldn’t be shocked if Gaethje will get some kind of assure that he’s subsequent for the Topuria-Oliveira winner. However I can simply inform you Justin was not thrilled.”
