Justin Gaethje is not mincing words these days, and you can’t really blame him. The man has been a human highlight reel for the UFC for years, delivering some of the most unforgettable wars in lightweight history.
But after putting in the work, taking the risky fights, and laying it all on the line, he’s feeling like the organization has left him standing out in the cold—again. His frustration reached new heights after Islam Makhachev’s unexpected move up to welterweight, effectively vacating the lightweight belt and leaving Gaethje without the title shot he feels he earned fair and square.
Let’s rewind a bit. Gaethje had just come off a gritty win over Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313, a fight that looked like it should have positioned him right at the front of the title queue. Instead, he agreed to a high-profile matchup against Max Holloway at UFC 300, a bout he now describes as more exhibition than anything meaningful in the title picture.
The knockout loss was brutal, yes, but Gaethje says it shouldn’t have derailed his championship trajectory—especially not when the UFC brass was the one begging him to take the fight. Meanwhile, fighters like Dustin Poirier, whom Gaethje had already beaten, got fast-tracked into a title shot after a single win over Benoit Saint Denis. That kind of matchmaking, in Gaethje’s eyes, is where the disconnect lies.
And now, while he watches Ilia Topuria—a former featherweight champion with zero lightweight credentials—step in to fight Charles Oliveira, a man who’s already fallen to Makhachev, Gaethje is stuck on the sidelines. From his perspective, the math just doesn’t add up. He’s not campaigning out of entitlement.
Gaethje is furious, and he should be.
“They owe me a championship fight,” Gaethje said on “The Makeshift Podcast.” “I’m 3-1 in my last four. They came to my house begging me to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300. I consider that an exhibition fight. I don’t mean that the loss is not on my record. I mean it had nothing to do with rankings. In the time that I did that, Dustin Poirier, who I just beat, got a good win over (Benoit) Saint Denis and then fought for the belt.”
“Since I’ve won (vs. Fiziev), the champion has been saying he wants to fight me. So they could have easily set that up, but they didn’t. Then he vacates, and then Oliveira is 2-2 in his last fights, already has a loss to Makhachev, and they bring a brand-new guy in, and I get f*cked again. So I’m not going to fight any of these motherf*ckers for fun unless they pay me so much more money.”
He’s making a case built on facts, on loyalty, on consistency. And when he says, “I think anybody that’s ever performed for their company gets a Christmas bonus,” it’s not just about money. It’s about recognition. It’s about not being the guy who always steps up, only to be skipped when it matters most.
For now, he waits. Not with his gloves hung up, but with his patience thinning. And if the UFC wants another war from “The Highlight,” they better be ready to pay the price—not just in dollars, but in promises kept.
