Third-ranked UFC lightweight contender Justin Gaethje (26-5) may have fought for the final time.
Former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria (16-0) and former lightweight titleholder Charles Oliveira (35-10, 1 NC) will fight for the vacant 155-pound title at UFC 317 on June 28 during the UFC’s annual International Fight Week. Islam Makhachev (27-1) vacated the title to move up to the welterweight division in an effort to become a two-division titleholder.
According to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, Gaethje will ‘hang up the gloves’ if he isn’t booked to face the UFC 317 winner.
“Justin Gaethje fight the (UFC 317) winner. He’s won three of his last four. He saved the UFC two times. They needed him and he was there,” Abdelaziz told Submission Radio. “The guy has done so much for the sport and if anyone says he doesn’t deserve it – He said, ‘If I’m not going to fight for the title then I’ll just hang up my gloves.’
“He’s a very principled guy,” Abdelaziz continued. “He really told me this yesterday. I was with him at the fight. He said, ‘If I’m not going to get a title shot, I feel disrespected. I love being a UFC fighter. I love the UFC, but I feel like the UFC has to love me back.’ He doesn’t feel the love right now.”
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Abdelaziz believes the fight promotion will give Gaethje what he wants and it will all work out.
“At the end of the day, I think this guy, they love him. I think they will give him what he wanted,” he said. “But at the end of the day we have to see what happens first between Charles and Ilia.”
Gaethje last fought in March, defeating Rafael Fiziev by unanimous decision in a rematch at UFC 313. At 36, the clock is ticking on Gaethje’s chances of becoming an undisputed UFC champion.
