Justin Gaethje stopped Donald Cerrone in the first round of their fight at UFC on ESPN+ 16. Here is what he said after the victory:
“He punched an old man in the face. I want to (expletive) him up for that”, spoke confident Gaethje about interesting bout with Conor McGregor.
Then targeted a fight with Nurmagomedov.
“No idea,” he said of a fight with the champ. “I don’t know. He probably beats me if you put it on paper. But I hit so hard, I kick so hard, and I’m so athletic – the way you stop a takedown in wrestling is to meet force with force. You don’t try to go away.”
Gaethje not happy with ref watching cowboy take more unnecessary blows. pic.twitter.com/aoENlqPymT
— UFCFightFans™️ (@MMAfightfans) September 15, 2019
“I won’t touch the cage. If he’s going to take me down, it’s going to be in the middle, and he’s going to get his leg kicked a few times before he even gets a shot off.”
Poirier, the last fighter to beat Gaethje, piped up on Twitter after Saturday’s fight to say he’d grant Gaethje’s previous wish for a rematch.
But Gaethje is only looking forward.
“I don’t owe him that, so no. He got his shot – my turn.”
That is unless McGregor wants to come out of retirement. The promotion already has tried to book a fight between the Irish star and Gaethje, only to see it scuttled by an injury to McGregor.
“Far as I know, he’s retired,” Gaethje said. “He’s in the rankings, so he either fights or he gets out. I absolutely would love to fight him.”