Paddy Pimblett will fight for lightweight gold early next year and will headline UFC 324 in January.
That was kind of expected, considering “The Baddy” has an intense, heated rivalry with 155-pound champion Ilia Topuria. However, it is not Topuria that Pimblett will be fighting in just two months’ time. With Topuria taking a break from fighting, it is Justin Gaethje who Pimblett will battle for an interim title. One he plans to turn into undisputed gold soon.
Fighting for the first time in January, Pimblett notes that both Christmas dinner and his birthday will be spoiled with UFC 324 in January, but it will all be worth it as he claims UFC is cold.
“2026 will be the biggest year of my life. I’m coming for that interim title, then I’ll make it the undisputed title when I come and beat Ilia Topuria and take the undisputed title,” Pimblett said in a recent clip posted by the UFC’s social media channels. ‘And then the little posh boy [Arman Tsarukyan]if he manages to fight in that time because he likes to sit outside and says he has a sore back. At that time, if the little fancy boy fights and maintains his rank, I will hit him on the head too.”
Pimblett also acknowledges that he won’t get the respect he deserves if he only fights for an interim title.
“It’s an interim, people will say ‘ahh, it’s just an interim’, this and that. I’m fighting for a world title, boy. People said I’d never rank. People said I’d never do this, never do that. The goalposts are always moving for me, that’s just normal,” he stated. And the former Cage Warriors champion expects these excuses to keep coming, diminishing his performance in the sport.
“When I’m done with Gaethje, it’ll be, ‘oh, he was 37, he retired anyway, he’s on his way out. He’s going to get the title shot.’ All this nonsense. But when I first signed with the UFC it was ‘he’s going to get knocked out’ [Luigi] Vendramini, oh he only beats journeymen. Jared Gordon beat him, Jared Leavitt is going to submit him.” Then it was ‘Bobby Green is going to knock him out,’ and then it was ‘Michael Chandler is going to knock him out.’
“Now it’s ‘Justin Gaethje is going to knock him out.’ But once I beat him, it’ll be, ‘Oh, he was old, he’s this, he’s that.’ I’m used to it. People think I’m still the same fighter who came in and fought Vendramini in September 2021, when I’m a completely different animal.
Pimblett is 7-0 since joining the UFC in 2021 and has become one of England’s biggest UFC stars alongside heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
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