Just a few months ago, Justin Gaethje was in Dana White’s bad books after a comment he allegedly made.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

On January 24, Justin Gaethje will fight for the interim lightweight title for a second time when he takes on Paddy Pimblett in the UFC 324 main event.

The fight was put together after Ilia Topuria announced he was taking a brief hiatus from the sport to deal with pressing family matters.

When it was announced, the UFC received a lot of criticism from the fanbase considering the fact that ‘The Baddy’ hasn’t fought anyone in the top 10 of the lightweight division.

As well as that, it wasn’t long ago that ‘The Highlight’ was in Dana White‘s bad-books for laying out a retirement ultimatum.

Gaethje blames his manager for the recent retirement ultimatum

Following his win over Rafael Fiziev last March, in which he agreed to the fight on short notice after Dan Hooker withdrew from their scheduled fight, Gaethje believed he’d done enough to warrant a title shot.

So much so, that the 37-year-old allegedly told the promotion that if he wasn’t given a title fight, he was going to retire from the sport.

Of course, this didn’t sit well with the UFC boss who went on to tell Gaethje to retire, calling his retirement ultimatum ‘whacky’.

However, having now been given a title fight to some degree, Gaethje has blamed the retirement fiasco on his longtime manager, Ali Abdelaziz.

“Well, I definitely got what I asked for, it was more my manager putting me in that position,” Gaethje told TNT Sports.

“I probably said it but we’re emotional beings, you know, and we’re petty, you don’t get to where I’m at or where these fighters are at without being petty.

“I take things personally and I thought I’d earned something and so I was trying to stand up (for myself),” Gaethje continued.

Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett face off at the UFC seasonal press conference

Gaethje could retire following UFC 324

Although the Arizonan was given what he asked for, Gaethje knows that he is nearing the end of his career in the premier promotion.

And even though he hasn’t given an exact time he will retire, the 37-year-old has revealed that if he is to be knocked out by Pimblett, he would call it a day on his career.