Justin Gaethje became the second BMF champion in UFC history by defeating Dustin Poirier with a head-kick knockout and then called out the winner of Islam Makhachev vs Charles Oliveira for his next fight.
Justin Gaethje made a mark in UFC history by becoming the second BMF champion. His win came as a result of a striking head-kick knockout against Dustin Poirier during UFC 291. The knockout didn’t just earn him a title, but it also brought the bout to a cold halt at 1:00 of the second round. Gaethje’s unique strategy involved cloaking his kick with a punch which led to his victory.
After his win over Poirier, Gaethje didn’t waste time and called out for his next challengers. He expressed his desire to confront the winner between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira, who were set to face one another at UFC 294.
While the victor enjoyed his moment, other fighters didn’t hold back their thoughts on the match. Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor took to Twitter, saying, “Justin, I’ll slap you around,” followed by another tweet stating “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, fuck chandler, you want it call for it.” While other fighters, including Lando Vannata, Belal Muhammad, Terrance McKinney, and Jalin Turner expressed their surprise and congratulated Gaethje on his win.
Tweets ranged from Vannata’s “Let’s goooooo Gaethje” and “When the foot wraps around the cerebellum…goodnight” to Muhammad’s “This is gonna be an amazing trilogy” and “Utah is the land of headkick main events.” McKinney kept it short with “Congrats to Justin G lfg” while Jalin Turner echoed similar sentiments with “Congrats to Justin. That was crazyyyyyyyy”. Other fighters also chimed in on Gaethje’s surprising head kick KO, showing an outpouring of support and admiration for his calculated strategy and amazing finish.