Justin Gaethje proposes radical UFC changes to fix one key issue
Justin Gaethje has suggested the UFC bring in a massive new change to help deal with controversial judges' scorecards.
As the UFC has gone from a small MMA business viewed as far inferior to boxing to one of the biggest sports organisations in the world, some of parts of the business have come under more and more scrutiny.
Perhaps more so than anything else, UFC fans have become increasingly critical of the perceived bias or mistakes of certain judges when a fight goes to a decision, but Gaethje has a radical plan to solve it.
Justin Gaethje reveals his drastic plan to deal with UFC judges
Throghout Gaethje's stellar career he's made a name for himself as a fighter who very rarely needs the judges scorecards to secure a victory.
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Across his 33-fight career, Gaethje has 28 wins, 21 via knockout or TKO and one by submission, and five losses, all by finish, showing his kill or be killed attitude.
In his last outing, Gaethje secured the biggest win of his career so far as he stopped then-dominant lightweight champion Ilia Topuria in a historic event at The White House.
Although he didn't let the fight go to the judges scorecards, the numbers post-fight suggested that the bout may have been a lot closer than it actually appeared to those watching the fight live.
And it is this that Gaethje believes the UFC needs to address if they are going to fix some of the controversial scorecards that we have seen in recent years.
"The numbers are absolute dogs***", Gaethje told the Double Coverage podcast.
"After the first round it said he had hit me as many times as I had hit him, and there's no way.
"Who knows what is counting? Is it done by a computer or a person? I don't know where those numbers come from...it just completely changes the perception of what happened.
"If they were true and real then ok, that happened, but they're not, they're bogus."
That being said, the UFC lightweight champion added that he didn't blame judges for getting scores or numbers wrong during fights, simply because of human nature.
"We're all seeing something different, we all come from different backgrounds and that's why I don't blame the judges," he added.
“It’s impossible to take human bias out of the equation."
Currently, each UFC fight has three judges in the arena watching the fight, with their scorecards used to determine the fight's winner should it now be finished within the distance.
But, in order to remove bias, Gaethje believes this number should be upped by around 1,600%.
He said: "They need more people. Right now it takes two people to f*** everything up, with 51 people it would take 26 people to f*** everything up.
"Put half of them in the arena, half of them out of the arena and then you come up with something with a greater number of people.
"We need to remove them from the atmosphere because they're humans, it's impossible not to have feelings, thoughts, biases."
READ MORE: Dana White confirms what's next for the UFC heavyweight title after Tom Aspinall vacates
When and who will Justin Gaethje fight next?
As it stands, it's still unclear when the UFC lightweight champion will make his return to the octagon to defend his belt for the first time.
On several occasions Gaethje has made it clear that he intends to take the rest of 2026 off, suggesting that a fight date early next year may be the most likely option.
As for the opponent, it's clear that former champion Topuria is eager to get a immediate rematch, but he's far from the only name linked with a shot at Gaethje.
Alongside Topuria, fellow former champion and current BMF title holder Charles Oliveira could be next in line for a title shot, while a rematch with Paddy Pimblett could be on the cards if the Liverpudlian can secure a big win before the end of this year.
READ MORE: Ilia Topuria comeback date confirmed as two potential opponents revealed
Topics: Justin Gaethje, UFC, MMA
Ben McCrum