After nearly a year, Justin Gaethje is preparing to make his return to the octagon at UFC 313 this weekend.
The American has been absent since losing to Max Holloway at UFC 300, but he is back to face Rafael Fiziev after Dan Hooker pulled out due to a gruesome hand injury.
The 36-year-old competes in the lightweight division, which has always been one of the most competitive, including Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
During his time, he’s fought some of the best and been involved in a few title fights.
But was he ever victorious in any of them?
Has Justin Gaethje ever been UFC champion?
The simple answer is no.
Gaethje has been in two UFC title fights, but he lost both.
The first came in October 2020 at UFC 254, where he came up against Khabib.
Khabib is arguably the greatest UFC fighter in history, and he was too good for Gaethje, securing a win via submission in round two before retiring.
The other came in May 2022 as Gaethje got himself into contention once more and faced Charles Oliveira.
Unfortunately, for the American, it all ended the same way as he ended up losing via submission through a rear-naked choke.
Despite having never been the actual lightweight champion, Gaethje has held the interim belt.
Before facing Khabib, the American came up against Tony Ferguson in May 2020 and claimed the interim title.
The duo produced a gruelling contest that went into the fifth round before Ferguson couldn’t take any more punishment, and the fight was waved off.
The final blow was a solid punch from Gaethje into Ferguson’s jaw, which rocked him, leading to the referee ending proceedings and handing the win to ‘The Highlight’.
Before joining UFC, Gaethje had been a World Series Of Fighting champion.
While competing for that brand, the American competed in six title bouts, winning them all.
Gaethje vs Fiziev: Date and how to follow
This lightweight showdown is set to take place on Saturday, March 8 on the Alex Pereira vs Magomed Ankalaev card at UFC 313.
It is being held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The preliminary action is set to get going at around 11pm UK time.
This co-main event is currently scheduled for 2:15am on Sunday morning.
The action will be shown on TNT Sports and discovery+ in the UK, with the early preliminary rounds available on the UFC Fight Pass. More info here.
talkSPORT and talkSPORT.com will keep you up to date with all the action, while you can also follow all the build-up on talkSPORT’s MMA YouTube channel.
To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
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