Justin Gaethje will take some extended time off after UFC 300.
Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) was knocked out by Max Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC) in an iconic last-second finish less than two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The fighter in Gaethje is willing to compete again soon, but he knows it’s best to let his brain heal after being put out cold.
“Metaphorically I could be ready tomorrow, but physically I think, again, I want to take care of myself,” Gaethje said on “The MMA Hangout.” “I do think that repeated concussions, you know, with me going to sleep like that, me receiving that shot, it would be foolish for me to jump back into training anytime before 180 days. I could do cardio. I can stay in shape.
“That’s what I want to try to do. Especially the older I get, the harder it is to get back to the best shape of my life. So, I want to stay active, but obviously the physical contact is going to be limited for quite some time just because I want to preserve myself. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I think six months at least is before I get back to taking shots, but that doesn’t say that I won’t be training the whole time. We’ll see. It’s a crazy game, see how the Dustin (Poirier) and (Islam) Makhachev fight goes, crazy game.”
Gaethje also broke his nose at the end of Round 1 courtesy of a spinning back kick from Holloway. However, “The Highlight” says it didn’t impact his performance in the fight.
“The crazy thing was the last one second, neither one of my coaches that were coming into the cage saw it happen,” Gaethje said. “They were working their way into the cage. They got to get their sh*t together, get their bucket together, get their ice together. So, they didn’t see it happen.
“I sat down and coach was like, ‘What the hell happened? You broke your nose.’ I was feeling my nose. I was trying to see how crooked it was. That’s the first time I ever broke my nose in a fight. … I don’t think it did (affect my breathing). I mean, I felt really good in there. I felt amazing in there.”
