Justin Gaethje’s manager shares timeline for UFC champion’s return: ‘It has to be massive’

Justin Gaethje isn’t done fighting just yet, but he’ll need a massive fight to lure him back into the cage.

Gaethje is coming off an epic performance at the UFC White House event, beating down heavy favorite Ilia Topuria to capture the lightweight title. There was some talk of retirement following that win. Gaethje has talked about this being his final run. And in a new interview with MMA Junkie, his manager Ali Abdelaziz shared his thoughts on what’s next for “The Highlight.”

“2027, we’ll see Justin Gaethje fighting,” Abdelaziz said. “He’s fought two times this year. He deserves the time off. He’s still the lightweight champion, undisputed, and I think all these guys have to chase him. But he wants to be in a big fight. A big, big fight. What is the big fight? Who decides that? It’s Dana White who decides what’s the biggest fight they can make.”

As far as Abdelaziz is concerned, Gaethje has already accomplished enough to retire happy. But he won’t stop his client from capitalizing on his current position to make a whole lot of money.

“I would like to see Justin Gaethje [retire],” Abdelaziz said. “If he retired today, I will be so happy because he did everything. And if he wants to choose to fight one more time, he can fight one more time because nobody tells him what to do. He’s the boss.”

“At the end of the day, it just has to be a massive fight.”

Abdelaziz wouldn’t speculate on what that massive fight would be and suggested there was no point in even trying to figure things out now when so much could change by 2027.

“You never know, bro,” he said. “Ilia was supposed to fight Islam if he would have beat Justin. He didn’t beat Justin. There’s a lot of options. The UFC is so busy right now, let them do what they do. And we’re gonna sit down and we’re gonna figure this out like we always do.”