A UFC veteran looked at Justin Gaethje’s situation this week and floated the idea that the lightweight champion simply never fights again. Sportskeeda’s headline Monday carried the line “It would be the cleanest exit we’ve ever had,” and NDTV Sports framed the same talk as a bold prediction about Gaethje’s future after his title win. I understand the appeal. I’d still hate it, because the clean exit only works if Gaethje walks out the door soon. Leaving the whole division standing in the hallway while he decides would be the messiest option on the table.
The case for retirement is easy to make. Gaethje took the belt from Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn on June 14, and Topuria retired on his stool at the end of Round 4. You don’t script a better final scene than that. Gaethje beat the guy everyone thought was unbeatable, on the lawn of the most famous house in the country, and the opponent quit. He sits No. 5 in Yahoo’s Uncrowned pound-for-pound rankings for October. In TV terms, that’s the show that wraps after its best season, before the network starts making it hang around three years too long.
And almost nobody gets to leave that way. Fighters keep showing up until somebody younger shows them the exit. So when the unnamed veteran calls it the cleanest exit ever, he has a point.
View post on X
The Problem Has a Name, and It’s Arman
Arman Tsarukyan earned a title shot the hard way. He starched Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331, he’s No. 10 on that same pound-for-pound list, and Gaethje himself said on a podcast that if he sticks around, Tsarukyan is next. Yahoo reported there are positive signs pointing toward Gaethje vs. Tsarukyan in the first quarter of 2027. That’s the fight the rankings are begging for, and the Uncrowned writers called it a win for the meritocracy. I agree with them.
There’s also unfinished business hanging over the Topuria win. Topuria accused Gaethje of loading up his gloves when they met at the White House. That accusation has gone quiet since, but if Gaethje retires off that one fight, it stays out there forever as an asterisk Topuria gets to wave around at every press conference for the next decade. Beating Tsarukyan would make that complaint sound like what it is, a former champ who sat on his stool looking for an explanation.
DC Is Right About the McGregor Exit
Then there’s the other door, the one with dollar signs on it. Daniel Cormier, in comments shared on X by @DovySimuMMA, addressed something he’d read about Gaethje being willing to vacate to fight Conor McGregor. Cormier didn’t mince words: “You can’t do that. It would harm his legacy to give away the belt & put value in the money fight over being the champ.” He added, “Probably was just talking, but Justin’s got options. Arman is a star, there’s Ilia too.”
I love a money fight as much as anybody alive. I’d buy the McGregor pay-per-view and complain about the price while doing it. But dropping a belt you just won to chase a payday is how a champion turns into a ducker in the history books, and Gaethje has spent his whole career as the guy who walks forward. Cormier even gave him the out, guessing it was probably just talk. Take the out, Justin.
Everyone Else Is Stuck in Traffic
The limbo is what bugs me most. Topuria is back in training and wants Paddy Pimblett. Pimblett pitched the two of them coaching a season of The Ultimate Fighter, and Dana White said at the UFC 332 post-fight press conference, “I love the idea of that, but a lot of things determine how things play out.” A lot of things, in this case, means one guy. The SI piece noted that whether Topuria vs. Pimblett happens at all hinges on Gaethje’s call, and that it likely wouldn’t be for the title if he stays active.
If the UFC goes the TUF route, Yahoo laid out the math: about six weeks of filming, four to five months of production, then roughly three months of weekly episodes. That’s more than 10 months before Topuria and Pimblett touch gloves. Meanwhile Tsarukyan, who Yahoo noted is spending time around N3on and Nina Drama, has plenty of runway to make himself less popular before his big moment.
So here’s my ruling. Gaethje has two honorable choices. He can retire now and take the cleanest exit in the history of the sport, or he can fight Tsarukyan in the first quarter of 2027 and leave with an even better story. The McGregor detour and the open-ended wait both make him look worse than he deserves.
UFC 335 goes off Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena with Charles Oliveira defending the BMF title against Diego Lopes in Lopes’ lightweight debut. If Gaethje still hasn’t picked a door by the time that main event ends, the lightweight belt starts looking like a hostage.
