Justin Gaethje wants to avenge his loss to Dustin Poirier.
Gaethje (23-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) and Poirier (28-7 MMA, 20-6 UFC) earned Fight of the Night for their barnburner at UFC on FOX 29 in 2018, but Gaethje was ultimately stopped in Round 4 by “The Diamond.”
Both lightweights went on to find success, capture interim titles and challenge for undisputed gold. Poirier is booked to face Michael Chandler at UFC 281 on Nov. 12 and if he gets past Chandler, Gaethje is eyeing a rematch next.
“There’s pretty big fights going on,” Gaethje told MMA Mania. “The championship, Beneil (Dariush) and (Mateusz) Gamrot, you’ve got Chandler and Poirier. Someone’s got to fight the winners and losers of all these fights. I don’t think I should fight the winner of the title fight, but I can fight the winner of any other of those fighters. I don’t want to fight Beneil.
“Ideally, Poirier beats Chandler. I’d like to fight Poirier. I mean, he beat me. That’s one win I’d like to get back. It was Fight of the Year, Fight of the Decade – Fight of a Couple Years, probably. That was a hell of a fight. So yeah, that’s ideal.”
Gaethje and Poirier are both coming off title fight losses to Charles Oliveira. “The Highlight” currently is sidelined due to nose surgery, but sees Poirier as the perfect fight to get back to title contention.
“I’d like to get that win back,” Gaethje added. “He’s ranked No. 1 or No. 2. I need two to three wins to get back to the title shot, so that would be ideal. I told them I’d be ready next year, so we’ll see how it goes.”
