Paddy Pimblett will get his first shot at UFC gold in January, but not in his desired title fight with lightweight champion Ilia Topuria.
In the main event of UFC 324 on 24 January, Pimblett will face Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight belt.
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The news, announced by UFC president Dana White on Thursday, came as a surprise. It is unclear why Topuria will not be defending his title in January, when the feeling was that the champion would be brought in for the UFC’s first event on Paramount+.
Last week, Topuria claimed the UFC had not approached him about his next fight, and fans will have to wait longer than expected to see the Spanish-Georgian in the cage again.
In the meantime, Liverpool’s Pimblett gets his first crack at a UFC belt, while American Gaethje aims to regain the interim title that he held five years ago.
Gaethje won that version of the UFC lightweight title by stopping Tony Ferguson in May 2020, before suffering a submission loss to regular champion Khabib Nurmagomedov five months later.
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This year, Gaethje threatened to retire from mixed martial arts if he did not get a title shot in his next fight, despite the 37-year-old only being on a one-fight win streak. Gaethje’s last fight came in March, as he outpointed Rafael Fiziev for the second time.
Paddy Pimblett (right) facing off with Ilia Topuria, after the latter won the UFC lightweight title (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, “Paddy The Baddy” is unbeaten in the UFC at 7-0, dating back to his debut in the promotion in 2021. Last time out, the 30-year-old dominated and stopped former Bellator champion Michael Chandler in April.
And Topuria last competed in June, knocking out former UFC champion Charles Oliveira in round one to win the vacant lightweight title. Prior to collecting the title at 155lb, Topuria gave up the featherweight belt in February.
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Topuria, 28, and Pimblett have a grudge dating back to 2022, when Topuria confronted the Liverpudlian over tweets he had posted, which “El Matador” allaged were anti-Georgian.
Justin Gaethje (top) during his rematch victory over Rafael Fiziev (Getty Images)
Also at UFC 324, Kayla Harrison will defend the women’s bantamweight title against former teammate Amanda Nunes, who held that belt – and the featherweight strap – before retiring from MMA in 2023.
The Brazilian will emerge from retirement to challenge Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold-medalist judoka for Team USA, in the co-main event on 24 January.
There are more former champions in action, too: Sean O’Malley, who reigned in the men’s bantamweight division, faces Song Yadong; previous men’s flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo fights Umar Nurmagomedov; and former women’s champions Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas will square off.
