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With both lightweights sitting near the top of the division and neither currently booked, Justin Gaethje is ready to revisit his Fight of the Year with Dustin Poirier.
No official UFC offer has been made so nothing is a done deal, but after Gaethje and Poirier engaged in an all-time slugfest back in 2018, it seems the matchmaker’s job is already done. For his part, Gaethje is confident he’ll soon see Poirier standing across the octagon from him again, although there are a few others who might disagree with him.
“I think that’s the obvious answer,” Gaethje told MMA Fighting regarding the Poirier rematch. “He’s No. 2, he has no dance partner, and the same with me. I think that fight is certainly a title contention fight. The winner of [Charles] Oliveira and [Beneil] Dariush fight, obviously [they] are going to fight for the title in October, so I need to fight Dustin in August, September, or October to put me on that perfect timeline.“You can’t force anybody to fight. I’m not saying he doesn’t want to fight me, but he probably doesn’t need to ever fight again with how much money he’s made. So I don’t know. I think he’ll take it. Some people around me think he won’t take it. All I can do is focus on myself in that regard.”
Poirier hasn’t given any indication that he’s not interested in a rematch against Gaethje, especially after he specifically spoke about looking for the biggest and best fights possible in the wake of declining a callout from Beneil Dariush.
Of course, signing up for a rematch against Gaethje is also like volunteering to get into a 10-car pile-up on the highway doing 100 miles per hour, so there’s a certain amount of risk involved that may send Poirier looking elsewhere since he already earned a knockout win in their first fight.
“Obviously that’s always a concern,” Gaethje said. “I need a dance partner and if they say no, there’s literally nothing I can do about it. I’m not concerned personally about Dustin specifically, because I think he’s not done fighting. I think he’s still going to want to fight. I think I’m a big fight, a big name. That’s a win-win for both of us in regards to the top echelon of this sport. I think I bring more to the table than that specific matchup [with Dariush] at that time. So I don’t think he would take the same course when it comes to making the choice.
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This is a fight I would definitely love to see again. What are your thoughts SherBros ?
https://www.mmafighting.com/platfor...t-some-people-around-me-think-he-wont-take-it
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