{"id":461987,"date":"2026-02-06T09:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T09:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/461987\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T09:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T09:26:10","slug":"justin-gaethje-says-ilia-topuria-clash-has-to-be-next-at-ufc-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/461987\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje says Ilia Topuria clash “has” to be next at UFC White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Gaethje has looked ahead to a possible UFC White House clash between himself and Ilia Topuria this summer.<\/p>\n

Last month, Justin Gaethje became the UFC interim lightweight champion for the second time in his career. He defeated Paddy Pimblett in a bout that proved to be pretty one sided in the end, as he reminded the masses why he\u2019s one of the scariest lightweights to ever pull on a pair of gloves in the UFC.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Charles Oliveira shares prediction for Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje fight after UFC 324<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, the logical next step<\/a> for him is that he goes on to face Ilia Topuria for the undisputed crown. In mixed martial arts, though, you just never know what\u2019s going to happen, and Gaethje knows that better than most.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Pat McAfee, however, Gaethje made it clear that the Topuria fight is all he\u2019s focused on right now.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gaethje looks ahead to UFC White House<\/p>\n

\u201cIlia Topuria on the White House [card]. It has to be. No other option,\u201d Gaethje said on The Pat McAfee Show. \u201cWalking out of the Oval Office, into the cage, wearing the flag. I\u2019ve been speaking [it] into existence since I fought [Rafael] Fiziev last year. I thought it would be Topuria in January, and then I would fight and defend my belt on the White House card in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings change up, can\u2019t control everything. Ilia takes a step back, has some personal issues. I still get to fight for an interim championship, which makes me a champion on paper, which gives me Ilia Topuria on the White House in June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quotes via MMA Fighting<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you believe this is the fight that will happen and if so, who will win? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, BJPENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje has looked ahead to a possible UFC White House clash between himself and Ilia Topuria this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-461987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}