Justin Gaethje has claimed that he has little desire to fight Conor McGregor, after the Irishman called him out in the aftermath of UFC 291.
Gaethje avenged a 2018 loss to Dustin Poirier on Saturday, knocking out his fellow American with a stunning head kick to win the ‘Baddest Motherf*****’ title. And McGregor, as he so often does after major UFC cards, then took to social media to call out one half of the main-event fight.
“I’ll slap you around,” tweeted McGregor, 35. “I KO him one shot. Guarantee it.”
At the UFC 291 post-fight press conference, Gaethje was asked about the former UFC champion’s comments. The lightweight, 34, replied: “I think he’s turned me down six times. And usually you have to lose to fight him, so don’t know what’s going on.
“I don’t know, I don’t really care. Whatever. I fight MMA, I like to fight big fights, I like exciting things, so it sounds pretty exciting to me. [But] I’m not going to fight someone on steroids.”
Gaethje was addressing the fact that McGregor, who has never tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is currently absent from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) testing pool. McGregor is set to fight Michael Chandler next, but the Irishman must first spend six months in Usada’s testing pool and return two negative tests – and zero positives. As such, McGregor vs Chandler is still without a date and location.
Gaethje added: “I’ve never taken steroids in my life, never will. Well, maybe when I retire, I might... but I’ve never taken steroids, and I don’t want to fight someone that’s cheating. And I probably shouldn’t even say that if I want the fight, but it’s the truth.”
McGregor vs Gaethje is a fight that many fans have long wanted to see. Meanwhile, McGregor has fought Poirier three times. McGregor knocked out the 34-year-old in a featherweight bout in 2014, before suffering a KO loss to Poirier in January 2021 at lightweight. In their trilogy fight in July 2021 – also contested at lightweight – McGregor suffered a broken leg at the end of Round 1.
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