Justin Gaethje says it's Arman Tsarukyan or retirement next

Justin Gaethje has made up his mind: Arman Tsarukyan or retirement next.

The UFC lightweight champion knows he can still hang with the best fighters in the world after delivering an all-time performance against Ilia Topuria last time out. But the noise coming out of Gaethje’s camp following the win is not positive. He is dealing with several injuries that need to be attended to before he can step back into the octagon, but will he even fight again?

Retirement talk has been a common topic for Justin Gaethje of late. While the division waits for his next move, Gaethje has confirmed that if he is to return to the cage, it should be Arman Tsarukyan standing across from him.

“I think it’s, you know, natural and obvious that they’re gonna try to figure out who the next guy is,” Gaethje said. “Arman just had a huge fight; a huge finish. So, I think, obviously, he’s at the forefront of everybody’s mind, and he’s clearly the next contender.”

“If I was able and willing to fight this year, then we would be fighting at the end of this year.”

Justin Gaethje won’t be returning anytime soon. Following his win at UFC Freedom 250, almost four months ago, Gaethje announced he has some injuries to deal with.

He needs to remain out of camp to allow the healing process to work. If he does return, late 2026-early 2027 looks incredibly unlikely.

“I have injuries from these last two fights that I need to recover from,” Gaethje added. “A deep, deep bone bruise in my knee. So, it’s just time. Why?- Yeah, it’s just time… I just beat what everyone considered the best guy in the world. So, I think my body is doing pretty good.”

“I just got bruises. Bone bruises last a long- have you ever had a bone bruise? When you break a bone, it’s like 6 weeks. And when you bruise a bone, it’s like a different kind of pain, and it takes longer, especially in my knee, where I had to go through these training camps, and I would re-aggravate it. Even if it’s super minimal. It’s delaying or restarting the entire process of healing, and that’s what I was going through, and now I just need time of not training to heal so I don’t re-aggravate it. If I keep re-aggravating it, it’s literally never going to heal.”

Gaethje believes he has two options upon recovering from his lasting injuries. If he reconsiders retirement and does return to the UFC, he expects that to be against Arman Tsarukyan.

“Sure, yeah. I guess if you had to put two things on paper, [me retiring or fighting Tsarukyan next] would be the two things that you would put on a piece of paper. I’m a one-day, quarter-mile at a time. So, I truly don’t know. Who knows?”

Listen to Justin Gaethje discuss his next career move and more below.