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Gaethje, the most violent man in the sport, has history with both men. He was originally scheduled to fight McGregor in 2019 before an injury forced the bout to be scrapped. <\/p>\n
He also shares one of the most memorable fights in recent UFC history with Holloway, suffering a dramatic last-second knockout in their BMF title clash.<\/p>\n
A win for either man would place them directly in Gaethje\u2019s sights. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very interested to see what happens in that fight,\u201d Gaethje told Jim Rome. <\/p>\n
\u201cMax definitely knocked me out, but I feel like I got that win back with the Ilia Topuria fight\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cAs I\u2019ve stated hundreds of times publicly I would love to punch Conor McGregor in the face.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m excited about that fight, I\u2019m excited to be there and watch it\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt he\u2019s one of the biggest superstars in the sport so fighting a guy like that would do great things for me financially and for my legendary status.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Gaethje and Conor McGregorSource: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Gaethje\u2019s stunning victory at UFC Freedom 250 over Ilia Topuria has been hailed as one of the greatest MMA fights of all-time, but McGregor isn\u2019t overly impressed by \u201cThe Highlight\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMax has flatlined Justin,\u201d McGregor told Paramount.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knocked him out. Face down. Out cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustin\u2019s OK. When he\u2019s on, Justin\u2019s OK. When he\u2019s bad, he\u2019s atrocious. He\u2019s woeful. He slaps his punches a lot. But he\u2019s very, very durable and he\u2019s unorthodox in his style.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should McGregor get past Holloway in his comeback fight, a showdown with Gaethje would be immense.<\/p>\n
However, McGregor might be more interested in continuing his career at welterweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure [I can make a run at the title],\u201d McGregor said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a 170-pound fighter now. I already held the 155-pound unified UFC world title. I\u2019m open for business. I wish for activity. I\u2019ve got a great fight in front of me.\u201d <\/p>\n
UFC analyst Michael Chiesa believes that a McGregor-Gaethje showdown is the biggest fight the promotion could make.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s say Conor McGregor beats Max Holloway, what better fight is there to do right now from a viewing standpoint?\u201d Chiesa told MMA Junkie.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Conor beats Max Holloway \u2013 does it get much bigger than that right now? That is the matchup to make in terms of bringing in eyes. It\u2019s the only thing that can compete with the White House, is Gaethje and Conor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the business side of things, and I see the fighter side of things. The fighter side of me says Arman (should fight Gaethje), but the business side of me says if Conor can get past Max Holloway, that\u2019s the fight. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a bigger fight you could hypothetically make right now that would draw more eyes than a Justin Gaethje vs. Conor McGregor fight. That would be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exactly what \u201cMystic Mac\u201d will do after his fight with Holloway is unclear, but the former two division champ insists activity is now his priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few names [I\u2019d like to fight] for sure,\u201d McGregor explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish to just compete. I want the smoke. I want all the smoke. For sure. Bring it all on. I don\u2019t rate them. Not on my level.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than saying it and getting into more detail on it, I would rather just show. That I will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, two weeks out from his fight with Holloway, the \u201cNotorious\u201d has been spotted shirtless at Laguna Beach in California <\/p>\n
McGregor, who did some training on the sand and stopped and posed for photos with fans, appeared to be in excellent shape. <\/p>\n
However, more than a few fight fans questioned if he was too big this close to fight night.<\/p>\n
Wild fight stuns after controversial end | 02:48<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo weeks to the fight, and Conor looks like he\u2019s been training for an all-you-can-eat buffet instead of Max Holloway,\u201d one fan posted.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecent chance he fails to make weight for the first time ever,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje has made it clear who he\u2019d like to fight next. The undisputed lightweight champ says a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-767193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767193","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=767193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}