Daniel Cormier thinks Justin Gaethje fights UFC champ Islam Makhachev

Daniel Cormier sees Justin Gaethje sliding into the UFC title picture.

Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) is gearing up for his next title defense after making quick work of short-notice replacement Renato Moicano at UFC 311 in January.

Ilia Topuria says he was promised an immediate lightweight title shot after he vacated his featherweight title, but there’s been pushback from Makhachev’s team. That’s why Cormier thinks Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) will end up getting the title shot.

“I honestly believe that’s who is going to fight for the belt, I believe it’s going to be Justin Gaethje,” Cormier said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Ben Askren. “If I’m team Makhachev, I’m asking for Justin Gaethje because that’s a big-name fight, it’s the guy that carries a lot of name recognition. I think that’s going to be the fight if I’m being honest with you.”

Ben Askren finds it hard to make a case for Gaethje, who was knocked out by ex-featherweight champ Max Holloway at UFC 300, but rebounded with a decision win over Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313.

“He lost to Holloway, and Topuria just put down Holloway in very impressive fashion,” Askren said of Gaethje. “I don’t even think it’s a hard argument. I think Topuria is by far the most compelling person.”

Cormier’s argument for Makhachev is that two of his four title defenses came over former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, and how he doesn’t want to go down that road again. Askren explained why he doesn’t see Cormier’s argument as valid.

“Those two featherweights, Holloway has the very, very recent win against Justin Gaethje at lightweight, at which they competed at lightweight, right?” Askren said. “And then Volkanovski had the very competitive bout with Islam Makhachev. “So you have both of those guys also competing at lightweight and having relatively good results.”