Justin Gaethje was not happy with Daniel Cormier suggesting Islam Makhachev gets the next title shot.
Cormier made this declaration after seeing his teammate, Makhachev victiorious at UFC 267, saying in the Octagon that he should get the next title shot. The only problem with that is Gaethje is fighting Michael Chandler at UFC 268 in what many are looking at as a #1-contender’s fight.
Following Cormier’s declaration in the Octagon, he and Gaethje had a bit of a back and forth on Twitter, that started with the lightweight contender accusing DC of verbal fellatio on his teammate. It then turned into a back and forth that saw the former two-division champ tell Gaethje to be focused on what’s ahead.
“Suck it harder @dc_mma” Gaethje wrote.
“I can’t fight you, but Islam can my guy. You just go and do what you do next week. You may be safe I’m not sure champ. @Justin_Gaethje” Cormier responded.
“You brought my name up. It wasn’t going to come out of anybody’s mouth,” Gaethje fired back.
“I literally asked why he should get title shot over you? Because he has to convince he deserves to jump you. Hell I thought you should have been in the fight with Charles. Have said it publicly. Calm down highlight , you’re my favorite fighter,” Cormier replied.
Justin Gaethje Addresses Social Media Spat With Cormier
Naturally, this tension between Justin Gaethje and Daniel Cormier was brought up during the UFC 268 pre-fight press conference. Here, the former interim lightweight champ made it clear that he has nothing personal against DC, but feels that he crossed the line into being too biased during his duties as a commentator, no matter how impressive Makhachev looked.
“Yeah (Makhachev’s win) was impressive. Sucks for Dan, late replacement. He wasn’t the guy coming off a full camp for Islam. That’s what that was,” Gaehtje said.
(Cormier) was incredibly biased. At the end of the day, I love Cormier… I felt it was my job that night to tweet and call it out because that’s what I saw. Outside that, it doesn’t matter. I think he knows that he should be in an unbiased mindset when he’s doing this, and I would hope that’s important to him.”
There are certainly some good points that Justin Gaethje is making here, even if he is speaking from a place of his own biases. It will be interesting to see if the UFC goes with Islam Makhachev as the next title contender or the winner of his fight with Michael Chandler.
You can watch the full media scrum below:
