Justin Gaethje plans to return to the octagon, however he’s not going to hurry issues.
Gaethje was on the mistaken finish of a brutal last-second knockout towards Max Holloway within the BMF title combat at UFC 300 earlier this month. “The Spotlight” additionally suffered a damaged nostril early within the combat, and was on the receiving finish of greater than 180 important strikes — 62 of these to the top — within the shedding effort. When requested a couple of UFC return, the previous interim light-weight champion couldn’t reply that query, however he is aware of he’ll spend many of the remainder of 2024 away from contact within the fitness center earlier than he’ll begin planning his subsequent transfer.
“Metaphorically, I could possibly be prepared tomorrow, however bodily, I do need to maintain myself,” Gaethje instructed MMA Hangout. “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 attempt to do — particularly [with] the older I get, the more durable it’s to get again to the most effective form of my life, so I need to keep lively. Clearly the bodily contact goes to be restricted for fairly a while, simply because I need to protect myself. … I feel six months, at the least, earlier than I get again to taking pictures. However that doesn’t say that I wont be coaching the entire time.”
Gaethje, in most individuals’s eyes, was the No. 1 contender for Islam Makhachev’s light-weight title previous to placing his BMF title on the road towards Holloway on the historic card. With arguably probably the most aggressive division within the sport solely getting deeper, Gaethje might have plenty of work to do to get again into that championship dialogue.
Though, if Dustin Poirier can pull off an enormous upset towards Makhachev in the principle occasion of UFC 302 on June 1, maybe Gaethje might land a 3rd assembly with Poirier to settle their two-fight tie. However once more, MMA is the Wild West, and loads can change over time.
“It’s a loopy recreation,” Gaethje mentioned. “We’ll see how that Dustin [and] Makhachev combat goes. Loopy recreation.”
