Justin Gaethje says he’d pick Conor McGregor for a rematch, after deciding in his own mind that beating Ilia Topuria meant he already got his revenge on Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway 😭 “Fun to shut him up.” Is Gaethje making sense or does he just want the red panty night? 👀 #ufc #mma #justingaethje #usa #conormcgregor
Justin Gaethje has revealed that his preferred next opponent would be Conor McGregor, explaining that a decisive win over Ilia Topuria had already settled the score — at least in his own mind — with both Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway, making a McGregor rematch the fight he now wants most.
Gaethje, 37, holds a 28-5 record and currently stands as the UFC lightweight champion. The Arizona native, training out of Genesis Training Center, is one of the division's most relentless pressure fighters, averaging an eye-catching 6.48 significant strikes landed per minute at a 58 percent accuracy rate — numbers that reflect a career built on forward movement and pure output. He carries no submission attempts on record, making his game almost entirely stand-and-bang.
Topuria, ranked first in the lightweight division and sitting atop the pound-for-pound rankings at just 29 years old, carried a 17-1 record into that contest. The Spain-based Georgian is a high-volume striker in his own right, landing 4.81 significant strikes per minute, and has shown genuine finishing ability across both striking and grappling throughout his career.
Oliveira, ranked third at lightweight at 36, brings a 37-11 record and remains one of the most dangerous submission artists in MMA, averaging 2.6 submission attempts per 15 minutes alongside 2.22 takedowns in the same span.
Why it matters
- Gaethje framing the Topuria win as proxy revenge is unconventional reasoning, but it signals he is looking past the division's top contenders.
- A McGregor rematch would carry massive commercial weight, though McGregor's competitive status remains a separate question entirely.
- Gaethje's quote — describing the satisfaction of silencing someone — suggests personal motivation is driving his target selection as much as rankings logic.
