Islam Makhachev Warning In Response To Gaethje’s Criticism
Justin Gaethje, use caution in your wish-making. When Islam Makhachev, the lightweight champion of the UFC, got another callout, which was basically his message.
In an X post on Tuesday, Gaethje (25-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) tagged UFC CEO Dana White as well as Makhachev (25-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC), stating that he is only “waiting on the call” to fight the 155-pound champion. In particular, Gaethje stated, “Let’s see who can kick the others head off first,” referring to their two major 2023 knockouts: Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294 and Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirier at UFC 291.
Makhachev issued a warning on X on Wednesday in response.
White has stated that, although maybe not being entirely convinced, he anticipated Oliveira will receive the next championship chance following his forced withdrawal from UFC 294 due to a cut he received during training. The fight, which Makhachev won in October 2022, would have been rematches for the UFC 280 championship.
In the opening round of their rematch, Islam Makhachev finished Volkanovski, who had taken over for Oliveira with less than two weeks’ notice. After the fight, Makhachev declared that he would rather face a new opponent in Gaethje than face Oliveira or leading challenger Arman Tsarukyan again.
Considering that Gaethje has won his last two fights, Makhachev’s inclination may provide him the advantage over Oliveira in their next encounter.
An interim champion before, Gaethje was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the second round of their October 2020 fight, which ended in a loss in his only prior try at undisputed gold.
