Eddie Alvarez predicts Justin Gaethje will be the UFC lightweight champion
Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez predicted that Justin Gaethje will be the new champion and wear the gold around his waist soon.
Alvarez and Gaethje met at UFC 218 in December 2017 in an absolute war between two of the most outstanding lightweight fighters in MMA. It was a razor-close fight that could have gone either way, until Alvarez landed a brutal knee and KOed Gaethje late in the third round, handing “The Highlight” his first professional loss. A few years later, and Alvarez is now plying his trade in ONE Championship while Gaethje remains one of the UFC’s top lightweight fighters. And with former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov recently giving up his belt and walking away, the lightweight division is now wide open.
The promotion plans on having Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler fight for the vacant title at UFC 262, but after that, things are wide open, and Gaethje isn’t that far away from fighting for the belt again. Despite losing to Nurmagomedov in his last fight at UFC 254, Gaethje is still one of the best fighters in the division and, in the opinion of Alvarez, a future UFC champion. Speaking to James Lynch, Alvarez predicted that Gaethje will become the new UFC lightweight champion at some point, and he explained why.
“I think Gaethje’s going to be the one kind of vying for that title. He only lost to two guys, right? Me and Dustin. Two guys who both held gold, both champions. Other than that, he absolutely obliterated every single opponent they put in front of them. Not beat, but he beat the sh*t out of some of the top guys in the world. So it’s difficult for me to not think he’s going to hold the gold in his hand at some point. He’s got Trevor (Wittman) behind him and he trains with (Kamaru) Usman, who’s also a champion. I feel like they have all their ducks in line to put him on the championship run. So I think he’s going to be working his way to becoming the top dog,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez is a former UFC champion himself so he knows what it takes to get to the top of the mountain. Though Gaethje lost to Nurmagomedov in his last fight, he’s not far removed from a four-fight win streak that culminated with an epic beatdown against Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 to win the interim belt. He might not be fighting for the belt next, but if Alvarez is right, it won’t be long until we see Gaethje get the chance to wear UFC lightweight gold.
Do you agree with Eddie Alvarez that Justin Gaethje will be a UFC champion?
