30 July 2023 , 06:14
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Justin Gaethje has insisted that he "doesn't care" about a potential fight with Conor McGregor after being called out by the Irishman after his win over Dustin Poirier.
Gaethje knocked out McGregor's most recent octagon foe Poirier with a nasty head kick in the second round of their BMF title fight last night at UFC 291, and immediately called for a world title bout after the fact. However, attention quickly turned again to McGregor, who took to Twitter to demand that his rival fight him.
The Irishman is due to fight Michael Chandler in his slated octagon return at the end of the year, but wrote "f*** Chandler" in his set of messages to Gaethje on social media. However, speaking after the event in Salt Lake City, the former interim lightweight champion insisted that he is unfazed my McGregor's calls.
"I think he's turned me down six times," Gaethje joked when asked about the tweet. "So usually you have to lose to fight him so I don't know what's going on... I don't know, you know I don't really care, I really don't care... Whatever, I fight MMA, I like to fight big fights and I like exciting things, it sounds pretty exciting to me."
However, Gaethje also intimated that he wouldn't be eager to fight a competitor who uses steroids, potentially making reference to the lack of negative drug tests McGregor has returned to USADA since announcing his return to fighting. Anyone competing after a long layoff must be in the USADA random testing pool for six months and have two negative tests before they can come back.
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McGregor has never failed a drug test in his career, and was out of the testing pool due to his 'retirement' while he spent two years out of action recovering from a broken leg. There is no indication that the Irishman has ever taken steroids, and has returned dozens of negative tests throughout his career, with no positives ever found.
Justin Gaethje defeated Dustin Poirier and was immediately called out (Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)What do you make of Justin Gaethje's response to Conor McGregor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"I'm not going to fight someone on steroids," Gaethje continued. "I've never taken steroids in my life, never will - well maybe when I'm retired I might. But I've never taken steroids and I don't want to fight someone that is cheating so I probably shouldn't even say that if I want the fight but it's the truth."
McGregor sent two tweets to Gaethje immediately after his win, the first of which read: "Justin, I’ll slap you around." His second message was more detailed, adding: "I’m the real BMF, he can fight for pennies if he wants but I want spirits. I call the shots, I’m in it to launch shots, f*** Chandler, you want it call for it."
For his part, Chandler also took to social media to call out Gaethje for a rematch of their razor-close 2021 battle, saying: "Well now Justin Gaethje has the #BMF belt - he has to defend it against a worthy adversary."