Conor McGregor or Justin Gaethje, Who Should Fight For the Title Next?

With the arrival of Conor McGregor, the lightweight title picture does not look so clear after the title showdown between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.

The lightweight division is filled with some insanely talented fighters such as Kevin Lee, Dan Hooker, Paul Felder, and so on. But all of them are a couple of wins away from getting a shot at the UFC title. The two fighters who are ahead of the rest in the title race are Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje.

Justin Gaethje is on a three-fight win streak with three first-round finishes. After suffering two losses against Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez, Gaethje bounced back with an impressive win over James Vick. Since then Gaethje has been phenomenal inside the octagon against opponents such as Edson Barboza and Donald Cerrone. However, is that enough to get a title shot when Conor McGregor is waiting to fight for the title?

Read: Khabib denies to fight Conor even for $100 million

It goes without saying that Conor will is likely to get the fight he wants because of his star power and the value he brings to the company. Not necessarily that’s how things work always. Irrespective of everything else Conor is a fighter’s fighter and he will fight anyone.

But it does make sense if Conor jumps over Gaethje to fight for the title especially if Khabib wins against Ferguson. Keeping aside Dana White’s cryptic reasons to hand Conor the title shot instead of Gaethje, let’s talk about why Conor should get the next title shot.

Should Conor McGregor jump over Justin Gaethje in the title race?

Justin Gaethje was unbeaten in his MMA career when he made his debut in UFC. He won a barn burner against Michael Johnson on his debut but lost two consecutive fights afterward. Gaethje lost to Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez.

It is to be noted that Conor destroyed Poirier and Alvarez in his past encounters. While Conor finished Poirier in 1st round, he outclassed Alvarez to pick up a 2nd round TKO victory.

Besides that out of the last three victories of Justin Gaethje, the win over Donald Cerrone looks the most impressive. And Conor McGregor just fought Donald Cerrone at welterweight and finished the fight in just 40 seconds.

If you look at the records in recent times, Gaethje has been busier and more successful than Conor. Gaethje has won 3 fights while Conor has only 1. But the magnitude of Conor’s victory over Cowboy is much bigger.

Many fans might say that if Conor fights for the title before Gaethje it’s not fair. And there is some truth to that argument. But Conor brings a lot of eyes to the game and he is phenomenal for business and if his rematch against Khabib will be arguably the biggest fight. So considering all that it is not surprising that Conor will get the next title shot.

Meanwhile if Conor does fight for the title next, Gaethje vs Poirier makes sense considering it will allow Gaethje to avenge his loss. Even Conor has shown interest in fighting Gaethje, which should be the idea scenario. However, a lot depends on the outcome of the title fight at UFC 249.