Justin Gaethje not happy about McGregor loss

There were a lot of reactions to Conor McGregor losing quite badly to Poirier over the past weekend: Some were gleeful that the man with the biggest mouth in MMA got his comeuppance and others were disappointed to see that we all may have been witnessing the beginning of the end of one of the most exciting careers and individuals that the sport has ever known.

One person in particular was upset because it almost certainly directly impacted his wallet and that person is Justin Gaethje.


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Everyone wants a fight with Conor McGregor because doing so will always mean some level of elevated payout since Conor, at least for now, is the biggest draw in the sport. Even when he had his "retirement" twice in order to first leave the sport for boxing and then just to leave the sport, when he would return the Pay Per View numbers would be the biggest the sport has seen. Only Brock Lesnar even comes close to being able to generate the amount of hype that McGregor can do.

Conor, whether he wins or loses will normally make more money than the rest of the card combined. Despite losing to Poirier, he still make 5 times as much money as Dustin did in that bout.


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There are a couple of problems for Justin Gaethje now that Conor has lost. For one thing, this resulted in Poirier leapfrogging him in the overall rankings. The second problem is that his most recent fight was actually against Khabib which resulted in Justin losing in the 2nd round by submission. The third problem is that Poirier, who will almost certainly be chosen to either go for the belt or set up some sort of trilogy with McGregor, already defeated Gaethje back in 2018.

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So even though Gaethje is the number 2 ranked contender in the lightweight division he is kind of a non-issue as far as upcoming superfights are concerned. If Khabib does bow out, which I am sure that Dana White is really pushing for him not to, it would be fair to offer a Poirier / Gaethje rematch for the strap - but things often don't happen the way that they "should" in UFC.

One thing that could work out for Gaethje could be a match with very solid up-and-comer (newcomer) Michael Chandler - who went in one week from unranked to number 4 in the division. If I were Gaethje, I would be very afraid of this potential matchup, but also pushing for it at the same time.


The bottom line is that Gaethje's chances for a big money fight kind of went out the window with Poirier dismantling "The Notorious One" the way that he did and the main reason being that a likely next step, should Khabib not decide to come back, would be for Conor to face him next. Now that Conor is off licking his wounds and probably thinking about taking that offer from Jake Paul, the chances of him getting a top dollar fight in the near future is pretty slim. It's hard to imagine one of the best fighters in the world not being sought after in future fights, but unfortunately for Gaethje, he just doesn't have the star power to pull it off on his own.



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Gaethje should prepare himself, Poirier is an excellent opponent and he proved it by beating McGregor.

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I think Conor's paydays just went down a lot with this loss but i believe you are right, he is still a massive draw and can therefore demand big payouts. Someone said that going over to boxing kind of ruined his MMA skills and that his stance in the octagon is now affected (negatively) from all that time preparing for Floyd Mayweather.

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I remember reading that about how Conor's stance isn't the same as it used to be thanks to training for boxing matches and it wasn't that long ago that he was talking about facing Manny next, so he might have been training exclusively for boxing still.

He'll still be a big draw, but he needs his next fight to be a win like a crackhead needs crack if he is going to stay that way.

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Where does Charles Oliveira fit into all this?

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In a fair world Oliveira would be something people are talking about since he hasn't lost a fight since 2017. I think the reason that he is being overlooked is because he is Brazilian, doesn't talk a lot of smack (because no one would care since most people don't speak Portuguese) and other than his last fight vs Ferguson, his list of people that he has defeated in the past few years isn't exactly a highlight reel of the best of the best.

Oliveira, despite definitely being one of the best fighters in the world, is normally relegated to "Fight Night"s rather than PPVs and this is always a good sign that Dana doesn't consider you to be very marketable. The only time Charles seems to get any sort of big event is when he is facing a far more popular opponent.

This might change once we can have events in Brazil again, but for now, despite being ranked number 3 in the division, not many people even talk about the guy.

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What Oliveira would need, is a DUI arrest (bonus point for hitting a pregnant woman apparently) or throw a dolly at something, and he doesn't have to speak English for this.

The only time Charles seems to get any sort of big event is when he is facing a far more popular opponent

Imagine him vs old Conor in Brazil, omg the buzz that it would be. 😍

I was checking his last loss, is against Paul Felder, I completely forgot about this fight, it just reminded me how good (this) Paul is, and I think he (Charles) would win a rematch.

You are right though, it took me years to realize that Cowboy Oliveira and Charles Oliveira are two different people; and they don't even compete in the same weight class, it just shows you how important personality is, Mike Perry knows this...

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