Outside Source
After beating Tony Ferguson to win the interim title in 2020, Gaethje threw his belt inside the Octagon. “The Highlight” recently revealed why he didn’t consider the interim title important. Gaethje believes it would have been foolish of him to consider himself a champion with Khabib Nurmagomedov being the lightweight champ. Gaethje went on to suffer a submission loss against Nurmagomedov in their title unifier.
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Gaethje (26-5) is now scheduled to fight for another interim title against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas. Gaethje vows to beat Pimblett (23-3) and fight Ilia Topuria in a title unifier. Gaethje promises that Pimblett will never fight Topuria, just like Ferguson never fought Nurmagomedov.
Ready to Play Spoiler
“It wasn’t that it wasn’t a priority, it was that I knew Khabib was next, and if I was gonna sit there and think that I was any kind of champ with that [interim] belt, with Khabib being next, I think I was going to be foolish,” Gaethje said at a recent UFC press conference. “I needed that mindset to prepare for that fight. And he beat me… I want to fight Ilia. I want to play spoiler just like I did in Khabib and Tony, f—k this up for everybody. And there’s gonna be no Paddy and Ilia.”
Ferguson was touted as the biggest threat to Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title reign. However, the fight never came to fruition despite Ferguson and Nurmagomedov being matched up on several occasions. The storyline ended with Ferguson suffering a brutal beatdown against Gaethje. Nurmagomedov correctly predicted that “El Cucuy” would never be the same fighter after his loss against Gaethje. Ferguson never won in the UFC again and parted ways with the promotion on an eight-fight slump.
Justin Gaethje says he threw the interim belt because keeping it with Khabib ahead would’ve been foolish 👀🥶
“It wasn’t that it wasn’t a priority, it was that I knew Khabib was next, and if I was gonna sit there and think that I was any kind of champ with that interim belt,… pic.twitter.com/QT6Nk3Pddq
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) December 6, 2025
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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