UFC 324: Gaethje vs Pimblett - Jan 24 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

New year, new era, still in Las Vegas…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Justin Gaethje vs Paddy Pimblett - Interim Lightweight Title 

Sean O’Malley vs Song Yadong

Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Derrick Lewis 

Natalia Silva vs Rose Namajunas 

Arnold Allen vs Jean Silva 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Umar Nurmagomedov vs Deiveson Figueiredo 

Ateba Gautier vs Andrey Pulyaev

Nikita Krylov vs Modestas Bukauskas

Alex Perez vs Charles Johnson 

Josh Hokit vs Denzel Freeman  

Ty Miller vs Adam Fugitt 

 

 

Out with ESPN, the Paramount era begins. Gone with PPV, it’s all on Paramount+ now in America. As best I can tell, the only difference it’s gonna make to us in the UK is that the start times are being brought forward an hour. Saw a lot of happy Yanks talking about that but all it means for us is 2am main card starts instead of 3am. Smashing.

Seen rumblings that Fight Pass might get phased out soon because of this deal. I really hope that’s bollocks but it wouldn’t shock me if Fight Pass ends up going the way of the WWE Network eventually. Really hope it doesn’t come to that because Fight Pass is an incredible resource for historic events and regional shows and it’s one of the few UFC things left that’s still great value at £5.99 a month. Anyway, yeah, think the bout order is right as I type this. As always I’ll update it as the shuffling and pullouts start. Love the look of this card.

 

Justin Gaethje vs Paddy Pimblett is our first headliner of 2026. Bit of a weird one but will no doubt be an entertaining fight to watch. If the fight is gonna get any criticism, and there’s been some already, it’s all to do with the interim title being slapped on there. The circumstances around that are definitely dodgy and I’ll get into all that in a minute. But as far as the actual fight itself goes, I don’t think you can really go wrong. Can’t really see any way this isn’t fun to watch for however long it lasts.

This is where it all began. I think it’s pretty obvious now that the UFC’s original plan for this card was most likely to have Topuria vs Pimblett for the belt as main event. When the little ‘UFC on Paramount’ video package/promo got put out recently, they even made a point of showing the Topuria/Pimblett in-cage face-off and shoving match from back in June. All signs seemed to be pointing towards that fight being next. But Topuria’s got some personal stuff going on at the moment with his marriage seemingly going tits up and accusations flying back and forth. Who knows what’s true? But for now, he’s out of commission. The interim title being created in this situation isn’t a problem in itself. We don’t know how long Topuria’s gonna be inactive so I understand why they’ve gone the interim route. The issue is that they’ve just blatantly passed over the #1 ranked Lightweight…

Tsarukyan was supposed to challenge then champ Islam Makhachev for the belt at UFC 311 a year ago. He pulled out the day before the fight and it’s still not 100% clear what happened. The report at the time was that he somehow suffered a back injury but there’s been all sorts of speculation since that he was actually gonna miss weight so ‘faked’ the injury to get out of the fight and save a bit of face. Fuck knows? Maybe there’s truth to it. Fighters pull out of fights all the time so there’s gotta be more to the story of why Dana seems to hate Tsarukyan so much. Regardless, Tsarukyan was the official backup for Topuria vs Oliveira in June and made championship weight. He then steamrolled Dan Hooker in Qatar in November in a fight Dana himself had previously confirmed would determine the next contender. Then he went back on that and next thing you know this Gaethje vs Pimblett fight got announced. Like I said, I’ve got zero issue with Gaethje vs Pimblett as a fight. But having an interim title fight between the #4 vs #5 ranked guys when #1 is shelved for no good reason is some bullshit however they try to spin it. How long has Tsarukyan gotta pay for that pullout at 311 and when will the punishment be enough?

Anyway…

You have to assume this is Justin Gaethje’s last run at UFC gold. He’s 37 years old now and he’s already had two failed attempts to win the thing. Undeniably one of the most consistently exciting fighters in UFC history. The wars he’s had over the years against the likes of Dustin Poirier, Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler are among the best we’ve ever seen in the Lightweight division. The losing effort against Charles Oliveira was still a wild one round shootout. The first fight with Rafael Fiziev was great. Even his UFC debut against Michael Johnson is a forgotten gem. And you can even go back to his WSOF days and the Luis Palomino fights and he was the same nutcase then. He’s always been stupidly fun to watch. But I have had the feeling it’s been catching up to him more recently. Maybe I’m wrong but it wouldn’t be a shock after the career full of slobberknockers he’s had either, would it? That faceplant KO he suffered against Max Holloway at UFC 300 was the type few come back from. He did successfully rebound from that with the points win over Fiziev in their rematch in March but, I don’t know. I just get the sense he’s lost a few steps. Maybe he knows it as well. He was very vocal before this fight was made that if his next fight wasn’t for the title, he’d retire. I was a bit baffled by that talk because that one win over Fiziev really doesn’t warrant a title shot. But maybe Gaethje genuinely just wants out now and was just throwing that out there to see if he could bag one last crack at UFC gold before stepping away for good. In the end, it’s worked. It’s only an interim belt but he’s kind of got what he wanted.

“I’d be foolish to think that this is the beginning of my career. This is my last chance and this opportunity to finish my career off the way that I want to is everything that I could ask for. I fight Paddy for the interim championship, win that, and then I get to fight Ilia Topuria. Ilia right now is the baddest man in my division. So what an opportunity to finish this career exactly how I’ve fought the whole time.”

“It’s impossible to be perfect every time and the challenge right now is to be perfect for 25 minutes. When I fight perfect, you have to be lucky to beat me. But the challenge is still ahead. I have to be perfect that night to knock Paddy out and earn my title shot on the White House card. That’s the plan and I think that if I can do that, that’s the best way that I can ever imagine finishing off my career.” - Justin Gaethje

Definitely sounds like he’s thinking about retiring sometime in 2026, doesn’t it? When you start visualising and talking about how you’re gonna finish off your career like he keeps doing here, you’ve almost got one foot out the door already. Kind of worries me going into this fight, to be honest. But I’ve got no doubt he’ll be game for the scrap once the Octagon door locks. Still feels wrong to me that he’s getting an interim title shot here. He’s only one fight removed from that Holloway KO loss and his only win since is over a Fiziev who took the fight on short notice and was coming off a knee injury layoff. As much as I like Gaethje, it’s bollocks. But here we are.

I can’t believe I’m typing this but we might actually be just weeks away from this absolute gannet wearing a UFC belt. I never would’ve thought it was possible when he first signed with the UFC back in 2021. And it’s not like I think he’s even rose to the occasion or anything. He’s improved a bit since the Cage Warriors days but not that much in my opinion. It’s gonna sound like the ramblings of a pure hater but a big chunk of Paddy’s rise up the UFC ranks has been built on favouritism and smoke and mirrors. You can go right back through his entire UFC run. They fed him nobodies at the start (didn’t he still get wobbled by one of them?), then they had to rob Jared Gordon to gift Paddy a bullshit decision, then they fed him a shot to bits Tony Ferguson who was coming off six straight losses, then ageing versions of King Green and Michael Chandler. Now fair enough, I actually picked Green and Chandler to beat Paddy. So I can’t really knock him for proving me wrong and beating them. But it wasn’t so much that I rated those versions of those guys, it was more that I wasn’t convinced by Paddy. He beat them, credit to him. But still, it’s more evidence of the UFC actively giving him the path of least resistance at every single turn. The Ferguson fight especially might just be the most shameless and blatant example of favouritism and ‘Dana White privilege’ we’ve ever seen. Paddy was 4-0 in the UFC when they booked that Ferguson fight and was on a six fight win streak overall. When do you ever see a PPV main card fight made where one guy is on a 6-0 streak against another guy who’s in a 0-6 slump? There was a stat put out recently that showed his last three wins (Chandler, Green, Ferguson) were currently on a thirteen fight losing streak and he also never beat a ranked opponent who was under the age of 38 years old. Yet there are fans out there who will look you dead in the eyes and tell you he’s the stuff of Topuria’s nightmares.

“Everyone’s gonna be shocked because I think I’ll knock Gaethje out. People think I’m just gonna grapple and take him down but I’m not. I don’t see him getting past the third round, just like Chandler.”

“To fight a legend like Justin Gaethje for the interim belt…I’ve paid my dues to get this. I’ll win this interim belt then I’ll beat up Ilia and take the proper belt, defend that, and then I’ll go up and fucking win the welterweight belt.” - Paddy Pimblett

“Paid his dues” by raiding the 155 old people’s home apparently. Also see he’s already on about moving up to 170. Hasn’t even won the interim yet and he’s talking about vacating the proper title to move up. I’m at the point where I honestly think the whole ‘champ champ’ thing might be one of the worst things to ever happen to MMA. Hardly anybody wants to actually win a title and defend it anymore the way the greats like Fedor, Anderson, GSP etc used to.

It also hasn’t gone unnoticed that there’s been some fuckery going on with the rankings when it comes to Paddy. After every event the rankings get updated and there’s been at least a couple of times this year where Paddy’s moved up the rankings without doing anything. I know other results in the division can effect that by default but there was one case over the summer when he just randomly moved up two spots in the rankings despite not fighting since April. It’s so obvious what the UFC were doing it’s almost comical. As it stands right now, he’s literally beaten nobody currently in the Top 10 at Lightweight. Not one of them. Yet he’s somehow ranked #5? Like Tsarukyan said, make it make sense. It’s actually mad to me that Paddy’s ended up in a position where he’s one win away from fighting for the proper belt when he never had to fight any of Makhachev, Tsarukyan, Oliveira or Holloway. The UFC have somehow successfully bullshitted him almost all the way to the title in front of our very eyes.

Here we go then. For all my criticism and bafflement above, I’ll say it again, this should be a very entertaining fight to watch. Gaethje doesn’t do boring and, as much as I dislike Pimblett, he’s rarely dull himself. He did look good against Chandler last time and, fair’s fair, he surprised me by being able to take Chandler down and bully him the way he did. If there was one thing I thought he’d struggle with even against an old Chandler, it was the wrestling. But he dominated, bloodied and finished him without much bother. The cynic in me still looks at this fight and it’s clearly a case of the UFC weighing up the options for Paddy against either Gaethje or Tsarukyan and once again giving him the more winnable fight. But even still, while I feel like Gaethje’s on the decline, he’s definitely the toughest fight Paddy will have had in the UFC yet easy. He should be able to bust Paddy up on the feet and, in theory, shouldn’t be easy to take down. The obvious route to victory for Paddy here is by submission but that’s gonna depend on whether he can get Gaethje down or not. I’m not confident he can but I thought the same about the Chandler fight so maybe I’m underestimating that part of Paddy’s game. Actually kind of torn on this one. Of course I like Gaethje and I don’t like Paddy. In that sense it’s a straightforward face vs heel thing. But if Paddy somehow wins this one, him vs Topuria is much more appealing than Gaethje vs Topuria to me. Topuria vs Pimblett has been brewing since 2022, for fuck’s sake. A Gaethje win here means we probably never get the pay-off for that. I’m not gonna actively root for Paddy and I won’t be a bit upset if Gaethje irons him out here. But the silver lining to a Paddy win would be that we finally get to see Topuria obliterate him and I’d rather that myself. So I guess either result here is almost a win/win for me.

 

Sean O’Malley vs Song Yadong is a solid bit of matchmaking. Although I was kind of hoping O’Malley might move up to Featherweight after going 0-2 against Merab in his last couple of fights. I liked the idea of some of the potential matchups for him up at 145 and he was basically shut out of the title race at 135 anyway as long as Merab was champ. Of course the Bantamweight landscape has changed big time now though.

And with O’Malley already having a win over new champ Petr Yan, he’s right back in business. If he beats Song here, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we get Yan vs O’Malley 2 for the belt next. It’d be undeserved, like I said O’Malley’s literally coming off those back-to-back losses to Merab. One win over Song Yadong shouldn’t bag him another crack at the title. But would anyone even be shocked if it happens? Yan vs Merab 2 seems like the way it should go but I won’t be surprised if O’Malley sneaks in there if he wins here. Especially if he gets a finish. Not sure how this goes though. Song’s decent but I’ve never been all the way sold on him myself. Despite him being on the roster since 2017, I’m still not sure how good he actually is. He’s never quite gotten that big breakthrough moment. Even his last fight against Cejudo, that seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a showcase win over a faded former champion but it ended in controversy with the eye poke. Song’s got time, for as long as he’s been in the UFC, it’s crazy that he only just turned 28. But I’m just not sure he’s ever gonna get over that hump and excel against the top guys in the division. Although saying that, O’Malley could be coming in a bit headfucked himself after those Merab fights. Interesting fight.

 

Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Derrick Lewis is hopefully gonna be done and dusted in a round. I’ve seen what Waldo’s fights look like when they go longer than that and it’s not pretty. No mystery who I’m rooting for here. Never liked Waldo and I’m a big fan of Lewis. So I’m really hoping the ‘Black Beast’ wallops him early here and we can knock this silly Waldo hype train off the rails once and for all.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been mildly amusing. And fair play, he’s got some mileage out of the eye poke thing. I still haven’t forgiven him for some of those horrible, horrible stinkers he had earlier in his UFC run though. Some of the worst fights in recent memory. But credit to him, he has been more watchable recently has old ‘Salsa Boy’. In 2025 he fought a whopping five times, which is almost unheard of for a Heavyweight. He went 4-1 and scored three knockouts. Nobody gave a shite about him until the Ante Delija fight in November. But coming a week after the Aspinall vs Gane eye poke mess, Waldo surviving an eye poke himself to come back and KO Delija (who also happens to be Aspinall’s teammate) was pretty wild. And of course, the Jon Jones arselickers immediately jumped on the bandwagon and suddenly pretended to be Waldo fans because it gave them more ammo against Aspinall. Waldo then took a quick turnaround on short notice and waffled Shamil Gaziev for another first round knockout on the Qatar card. Suddenly everyone rates him. Worth remembering though, this recent love-in is all based off wins over Delija and Gaziev. That’s it. Waldo’s still the guy who looked like fucking dogshit and lost to a gun-shy Sergei Pavlovich in August. Nothing much I can say about Lewis at this point, bless him. He’ll either a) flatten Waldo in brutal fashion 30 seconds in, b) lose the most boring decision ever or c) he’ll pull out the day of the fight due to ‘undisclosed medical reasons’, which no doubt means he was shitting his brains out at the hotel because he had a bad KFC that morning.

 

Natalia Silva vs Rose Namajunas then. Was originally Namajunas against Alexa Grasso but Grasso pulled out almost as quickly as the fight was announced. This isn’t doing much for me. It’s Namajunas. She hasn’t looked at the races to me in years. I’d like to see Silva drag something watchable out of her but I’m not getting my hopes up. Namajunas has just seemed really disinterested to me for some time now. Undoubtedly one of the better women’s fighters in the sport at her best but watching her now compared to looking back at those nights she beat the likes of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Zhang Weili, it’s like night and day. She doesn’t even resemble that fighter anymore. When she moved up from Strawweight to Flyweight, I quietly hoped maybe it was just the weight cut getting difficult and the move up in weight might freshen her up. No. She’s still the same at Flyweight. She’s 33 years old now and coming off a decision win over Miranda Maverick in a snoozer back in June.

Natalia Silva is basically the Brazilian Chun Li with those thighs. Good lord. Anyway…(compose yourself Wand), she’s 28 years old with a 19-5-1 record and she’s currently on a 13 fight winning streak. She’s ranked #2 at Flyweight with only Manon Fiorot above her. And considering Fiorot just fought for the title in May and lost, Silva should really be challenging Valentina Shevchenko for the title next in my opinion. So I’m a bit surprised she stepped in here when Grasso dropped out. Especially since Silva just beat Grasso in her last fight. Seems a bit off that she’s now Grasso’s substitute. But whatever. I guess with Shevchenko having just beat Zhang in November, Silva didn’t wanna sit and wait for Shev. It’s admirable but risky. We saw what happened to Sean Brady when he took that fight with Michael Morales to stay active. Not that Namajunas is anywhere near the physical threat Morales is but you get what I mean. Silva’s so close to that title shot now and Namajunas could ruin it in the most boring fashion possible. Hopefully that’s not the case and Silva gets an impressive win here but we’ll see. Flyweight can do with some fresh faces in the title mix and I think we’ll see both Silva and Erin Blanchfield challenge for the gold in 2026.

 

Arnold Allen vs Jean Silva jumps off the page to me as a really interesting fight so I’m making it the first ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** of the year. It’s not the fight I’d have predicted next for either of them but I like it. I was a bit surprised when this was announced though because Allen was talking about moving up to Lightweight just before this but apparently this is at Featherweight. Very intrigued by how their styles match up. Allen’s ranked #6 at Featherweight as I type this, Silva’s at #10. So this is a good opportunity for Silva to move up the ladder despite coming off a loss himself. Allen fighting down in rank might seem odd at first glance but he’s also coming off a pretty lengthy layoff so I’m assuming he just wants back in there against anyone at this point, and Silva’s an exciting opponent.

It’ll be good to see Allen back in there. He hasn’t fought since July 2024 at UFC 304 in Manchester. He beat Giga Chikadze on points that night in a fight I barely remember. Looking back at the thread to refresh my memory, I described it as a “solid but unspectacular” performance from him. Think it was probably a case of him just needing to get a W after those back-to-back losses to Max Holloway and Movsar Evloev. A win’s a win. He’s been sidelined since with a shoulder injury from what I can tell. And that’s why he was thinking about moving up to 155 because he said he’d put muscle on rehabbing the shoulder. Hopefully he’s all good now because shoulder injuries are no joke. He’s still relatively young, he turns 32 a few weeks after this fight, so he’s still got time to make some noise at 145 or 155 if he can stay healthy and build some momentum. It seemed like he’d finally arrived when he bashed up Dan Hooker on that London card a few years ago but it never quite panned out for him after that. Hopefully he can make a proper go of it now but he’s got his hands full here.

Jean Silva has been one of my favourite additions to the roster over the last year or two. Never a dull moment. He got off to a great start in the UFC, going 5-0 with five finishes in just over a year. The highlight being his ninja choke submission over Bryce Mitchell at UFC 314 in Miami back in April. The whole build up to that and then how the fight itself played out was hilarious. He had good wins over Charles Jourdain, Drew Dober and Melsik Baghdasaryan before that but the Bryce one, on the main card of a strong PPV, felt like a bit of a breakthrough moment. Off the back of that win he got to headline the Noche card in September against Diego Lopes. That was a pairing that you just knew was gonna result in bell-to-bell chaos the second it was announced and they didn’t disappoint. There were so many twists and turns in that one. Lopes was wrecking him in the first round, then Silva came back and was busting Lopes up in the second, then right at the end of the second round he got over-aggressive and Lopes made him pay and caught him coming in with a perfectly timed spinning elbow and put him away.

Crazy finish to what was one of my favourite fights of the year. But it was one where Silva had to have been so furious with himself when he watched it back. He was winning that second round handily, seemed like he couldn’t miss with his punches and Lopes looked like he was in trouble. Then Silva went for the kill when he didn’t really need to and left himself wide open for that elbow. I can’t see him changing. He just seems like one of those fighters who’s hardwired to try to end a fight brutally every chance he gets. If he came along 20 years earlier, you know he’d have been rolling with the Chute Boxe crew. Just pure tunnel vision aggression. It makes him so much fun to watch but it’s inevitably gonna cost him at times like it did against Lopes. I’m looking forward to seeing how this one plays out because Allen isn’t typically someone who gets dragged into wild brawls so we might get to see a different kind of fight out of Silva here.

 

Umar Nurmagomedov vs Deiveson Figueiredo being on the prelims just tells you how good a card this is. Could’ve easily had this on the main card or even headlining a Fight Night in its own right. Here it’s just a prelim. Really like this fight. Umar had a real 50/50 year in 2025. Started the year challenging Merab for the Bantamweight strap and many, including me, fancied him to win that fight. But it wasn’t to be. Turned out to be a hell of a fight, probably won’t get the love it deserves in the FOTY conversations because it came so early in the year and it’s not as fresh in the memory now but it was an incredible fight. Merab just took over as it went on and it’s been remembered as a complete domination but Umar had his moments. He bounced back from that loss with a decision win over Mario Bautista in October in a fight I really enjoyed and I liked his comments after that fight that he “needs time and experience to get better” before getting another title shot. Refreshing to hear a fighter say that rather than just wanting to jump back into another title fight after a loss, making no adjustments or improvements but expecting different results. Umar’s got potential and I still think a UFC title could be in his future. Not sure what Figgy’s got left at 38 but he’s got his work cut out here. He had a weird year really, suffered the knee injury in the Sandhagen fight and then won a really dull decision over Montel Jackson on the Rio card in October. This kind of feels like they’re putting old Figgy out to pasture but I’m hoping he can at least make a good fight of it.

 

Ateba Gautier vs Andrey Pulyaev is here purely to showcase Gautier and his frightening power. Whether it plays out like that remains to be seen but I think that’s the idea with this booking. Gautier has been wrecking the opponents they’ve been feeding him so far but it’s all been fairly low level stuff. So far he’s clobbered ham and eggers Jose Medina, Robert Valentin and Tre’ston Vines, all in the first round. I don’t have a problem with it though. Gautier’s still only 23 years old and 9-1. There’s plenty of time to step him up and I’m sure it’s coming soon. No need to rush him. He’s got a real likability, he looks like a star and he’s got a similar backstory to fellow Cameroonian Francis Ngannou. If he turns out to be the real deal as he goes up in levels, they could have a star on their hands with Gautier. Obviously still very early days for that kind of talk yet though. For now I’m just enjoying the squash match phase of his career. Pulyaev’s Russian, 28 years old with a record of 10-3 with 8 finishes. He’s gone 1-1 in the UFC so far. Lost a decision against Christian Leroy Duncan in his debut, then came back with a TKO win over some sod called Nick Klein in August. He’s probably a gradual step up from Gautier’s previous opponents but still someone he should be dealing with if he’s got anything about him.

 

Nikita Krylov vs Modestas Bukauskas. Can’t say I’m really feeling it but it might be alright. Krylov’s been floundering for a while now. He’s actually got some decent name wins on his record but they don’t really stand up to scrutiny. He beat Johnny Walker in 2020 but went the distance, despite everyone and their Nan knocking Walker out, he couldn’t. He also scored a first round KO over Alexander Gustafsson. But it was last legs, shot to bits, 2022 Gus. Not the guy who took both Jones and Cormier to the wire. Krylov was actually Gustafsson’s last fight. Sad way to go out for the big Swede. More recently, Krylov spent his 2025 getting chinned in the first round by Dominick Reyes and Bogdan Guskov. He’s probably getting battered again here. Bukauskas is no future UFC champion or anything but he’s on a decent run of form at the minute, on a four fight win streak and just bashed Paul Craig into retirement. Neither are world beaters but I think it’s clear Bukauskas is in a better place going into 2026.

 

Alex Perez vs Charles Johnson should be good if it happens. I say “if it happens” because Perez has a long history of dropping out of fights. Which is funny because Johnson is usually the go-to guy the matchmakers call to step in as a replacement whenever a Flyweight fight goes down the shitter. Perez is in a rough spot now as well. He’s lost five of his last six fights and comes into this one off a submission loss to Asu Almabayev on the Qatar card in November. Johnson’s one of the most under-appreciated fighters in the division, and maybe on the whole roster, for me. He’s probably never even gonna challenge for UFC gold but he’s a really good fighter and can upset a lot of more hyped names on a given night. We saw that when he knocked out Joshua Van in 2024. Van’s now holding the belt, for fuck’s sake. Yet Johnson never seems to get off the prelims. Even last time out, Johnson knocked out top UK prospect and previously undefeated Lone’er Kavanagh on the Shanghai card in August. He’s no joke and he deserves more recognition. I’m hoping he gets the win here, preferably another finish, and maybe the matchmakers will finally give him a bump up the card a bit.

 

Josh Hokit vs Denzel Freeman. This wasn’t ringing any bells initially but, looking both up, I’m fully rooting for Freeman here. Hokit is 28 years old and 7-0, all finishes. Fought on DWCS in August then made his UFC debut in November, stopping some fucker called Max Gimenis in just under a minute. Had to look Hokit up to refresh my memory and it’s this berk…

“Dana White has decided to get rid of this unentertaining Heavyweight division. And instead, we’re gonna create the ‘Incredible Hok’ division. But my opponents won’t be these lazy, boring Heavyweights. My opponents will be sex traffickers, paedophiles, rapists, hell you can even throw the transgenders in there. Line them all up and, one by one, I’ll give them a good old American beatdown inside the Octagon to show the world that there’s consequences for these types of behaviours in America.” - Josh Hokit

State of that. He almost had me on board shitting on the boring Heavyweights. Then he went all weird. Not to mention the absurdity of lumping transgender people in with the list of wrong’uns he mentioned. Proper cunt. And to the surprise of nobody, a load of sad twats in the MMA fanbase instantly became fans of this bollock. By default I’m hoping this Freeman chap chins him. Quickly looking him up, he’s 34 years old and 7-1 with 5 inside the distance. Made his UFC debut on the Qatar card in November and beat some lump named Marek Bujlo on points in what I vaguely recall hearing was an awful fight. He’s also got a submission win over Steven Asplund from a LFA card in 2024 and was apparently in developmental in WWE/NXT at some point. He used one of his post-fight interviews to call for a date with Liv Morgan. Much better use of promo time than that shite Hokit spewed out. Desperately trying to be edgy and insulting trans people vs shooting your shot with Liv Morgan? I know whose side I’m on here. Go on Denzel!

 

Ty Miller vs Adam Fugitt. No clue whatsoever. Ty ‘Thriller’ Miller is making his UFC debut here. Never heard of him but looking him up, Sherdog tells me he’s 25 years old and undefeated at 6-0-0-1 with just a couple of knockouts so far. Nothing stands out from his record, he won a fight by decision on DWCS back in August. That’s about it. Fugitt’s 36 with a record of 10-5 with 8 inside the distance. He’s fought a bunch of times in the UFC now but none of it sticks in the memory. Pure prelim or Apex fodder this fella. He was last seen getting smacked about to a first round stoppage loss against Islam Dulatov in July.

 

 

Me thinking about the possibility of Paddy Piglett potentially holding UFC gold…

Happy New Year!

Edited January 24 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

He’s improved a bit since the Cage Warriors days but not that much in my opinion. It’s gonna sound like the ramblings of a pure hater but a big chunk of Paddy’s rise up the UFC ranks has been built on favouritism and smoke and mirrors. You can go right back through his entire UFC run. They fed him nobodies at the start (didn’t he still get wobbled by one of them?), then they had to rob Jared Gordon to gift Paddy a bullshit decision, then they fed him a shot to bits Tony Ferguson who was coming off six straight losses, then ageing versions of King Green and Michael Chandler. Now fair enough, I actually picked Green and Chandler to beat Paddy. So I can’t really knock him for proving me wrong and beating them. But it wasn’t so much that I rated those versions of those guys, it was more that I wasn’t convinced by Paddy. He beat them, credit to him. But still, it’s more evidence of the UFC actively giving him the path of least resistance at every single turn. The Ferguson fight especially might just be the most shameless and blatant example of favouritism and ‘Dana White privilege’ we’ve ever seen. Paddy was 4-0 in the UFC when they booked that Ferguson fight and was on a six fight win streak overall. When do you ever see a PPV main card fight made where one guy is on a 6-0 streak against another guy who’s in a 0-6 slump? There was a stat put out recently that showed his last three wins (Chandler, Green, Ferguson) were currently on a thirteen fight losing streak and he also never beat a ranked opponent who was under the age of 38 years old. Yet there are fans out there who will look you dead in the eyes and tell you he’s the stuff of Topuria’s nightmares.

I've only seen two fights of Pimblett's, his fights with Gordon and Ferguson. In the former, he looked very ordinary. In the latter, Ferguson looked shot to pieces. 

From what I have seen (and read about him). he does have a very good chin and is skilled on the ground, which will obviously make him difficult to finish. But otherwise he appears to be pretty ordinary for this level. He would likely be a punching bag in a bout with Topuria, with the fight ending either via corner stoppage or KO/TKO. With Gaethje, I can imagine he might fare a little better. I haven't seen enough of Pimblett to rate him as an offensive wrestler (I haven't seen the Chandler bout you mentioned), but I guess given his competent ground game he could replicate what Oliveira did Gaethje, weather an early storm and sink in a submission when the opportunity arises. 

I obviously hope he doesn't though. 

Edited December 24, 2025 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

On 12/24/2025 at 8:10 PM, jimufctna24 said:

From what I have seen (and read about him). he does have a very good chin and is skilled on the ground 

Paddy can definitely take a dig. It’s his defence which lets him down in the striking more than anything. It’s been almost nonexistent at times. Chin straight up in the air, wading in recklessly. It’s why he’s been tagged a whole bunch in most of his fights, even when he was being spoon fed bottom rung opposition at the start of his UFC run. I think that’s why the matchmakers have been very careful with how they’ve matched him. I might be misremembering it but I could swear in one of his very first UFC fights against either Luigi Vendramini or Kazula Vargas (maybe both actually) he got clipped pretty good before finding the finish himself. I’d imagine the matchmakers seeing him get walloped like that by that level of opponent understandably would’ve spooked them. They gave him Jordan Leavitt after that who was almost exclusively a grappler with nothing much in the striking or power departments. Then it was the Jared Gordon fight, again a guy who was more of a decision merchant not known for his punching power and he was still pinging Paddy’s head back repeatedly. They had to mug Gordon on the cards and that seemed to really scare the matchmakers, which is probably why they then gave Paddy the corpse of Tony Ferguson in his next fight. 

It’s a good job Paddy does have a chin because he’s needed it the amount of times his opponents have been able to find the target. It’s only been his ability to absorb a punch and sometimes the opponents not being big hitters which has saved him so far. But it’s a risky game to play. I haven’t watched the Chandler fight back since it happened so can’t remember if he looked any better defensively in that one. But to be over 20 fights into his career and still be rushing in with his chin up on a flagpole, I’m surprised he hasn’t been properly chinned yet to be honest. He’s been asking for a KO for a while now. Hopefully Gaethje can provide it. Surely he won’t think he can just lunge at Justin Gaethje of all people chin first? 

[Kfogg1991]

It's not clear what is going on with this main event now and if it's for the undisputed belt not interim now ilija has said he's stepping back to focus on personal life things so it will be for the undisputed surely 

[wandshogun09]

If you can stomach 11 minutes of Paddy Pimblett talking, Tom Aspinall had him on his YouTube channel talking about what’s coming up in 2026. Worth a watch to get an idea of what his game is…

Funny how as soon as Aspinall mentions Paddy vs Topuria as “the fight to make”, Paddy starts saying “It’s the only fight to make but at the same time, we need to see what’s happening with him…” Immediately looking for obstacles to throw in the way of that one. Lots of talk about how he really wants to “beat up Topuria” but if he’s gonna be out a long time he “should vacate the belt and not hold the division up”. I’m not gonna be a hypocrite here. I was forever banging on about how Jon Jones took the piss holding the belt hostage at Heavyweight so if Topuria is gonna be sidelined for an extended period, fair enough maybe he should vacate. But they haven’t even crowned an interim champ yet, Aspinall won and defended that fucker, so it’s a bit early for the Jones/Aspinall comparisons. 

I think the way Paddy’s talking here gives a little glimpse into what he’s really hoping happens though. I still don’t think he really wants any of Topuria. He’s probably praying into his plate of cream doughnuts every night that this situation Topuria’s going through drags on longer so he has to give up the belt. I know the UFC rightly get the bulk of the blame for him be given the relatively easy route but despite him talking a big game, I honestly think Paddy wants to avoid the best fighters in the division at all costs as well. I remember before Makhachev moved up to 170, Paddy was talking about his potential road to the title and he outright said something like ‘I heard Islam might retire, he might not even be champion when I get to challenge for it’. Which just screamed ‘wishful thinking’ at the time. And as luck would have it, he got his wish. Although due to Islam moving up to 170 rather than retiring. Now this Topuria mess. If Paddy beats Gaethje (and that’s no gimme, to be fair), I absolutely see the UFC pushing for Topuria to relinquish the title so they can upgrade Paddy to ‘undisputed’ status. You know it’s coming.

Another thing I thought was quite telling was he mentioned that if he beats Gaethje and Volk beats Lopes again, he thinks Volk might wanna move up to fight him for the Lightweight belt. I’ve seen nobody mention that fight, or wanting to see that fight, or Volk even fighting at 155 again. But Paddy’s thrown it out there now clearly hoping it’ll grow legs. He’s framed it as Volk might want it because he’ll see Paddy as “his best chance to win the Lightweight belt” but I think it’s more a case of Paddy thinking he can get an ageing Featherweight legend to move up because he knows he’ll have the size advantage and he thinks he’s catching him on his last legs. Plus that way he gets to delay having to fight Tsarukyan or the winner of Holloway/Oliveira or whoever. Thinks he’s being slick but it’s so obvious what he’s doing. “I don’t even wanna fight Volk because I proper like him. But…” Fuck off Piggy. 

Edited January 4 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

UFC PPVs might be a thing of the past in America, not here though. This one’s on TNT Box Office according to the UFC website…

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, it is. They've been advertising it during the breaks in the FA Cup games.

[NeverYield]

Looking forward to this one, never seen Gaethje in a boring fight.

[wandshogun09]

Not sure where it started and I haven’t seen it confirmed anywhere reputable yet but there’s lots of talk at the moment that Kayla Harrison is out of the co-main with a neck injury.

They’re gonna do Nunes vs Pena 3, aren’t they?

[Bruce85]

Looks like the fights off and Amanda is off the card. Assume they’ll rebook it for later down the line. Hopefully it’s not too serious and we get to see the fight soon, it’s the only women’s fight in UFC that has any aura about it. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah I’m happy with that, to be honest. Much rather see them just postpone Harrison vs Nunes than muddy the waters by throwing someone else in there. Seen people suggesting everyone from Pena to Norma Bumcheeks to sodding Ailin Perez as replacements. But like you say, Harrison vs Nunes is the only women’s fight on the horizon that’s worth a shit. Throwing someone else into the mix against a rusty Nunes could potentially scupper that fight for good.

Also seen a lot of suggestions for the fight to be rebooked for the White House card. Honestly I’ll be glad when that bastard thing is in the rear view. Sick to death of people acting like every big fight seemingly has to be on that card. In this case I guess it would make sense for Harrison to defend on that card for stupid star spangled reasons. But there’s also the little matter of her reportedly needing fucking neck surgery! I don’t know how bad the injury is but it seems very optimistic to think she’ll be good to go by June.

I’ve updated the opening post with the new bout order and I’ve redone the poll to take Harrison vs Nunes out and add Arnold Allen vs Jean Silva. If you voted in the old poll you’ll have to vote again soz. 

Edited January 15 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

I'm picking Gaethje.

There is a possibility that Pimblett's chin holds up and he eventually gets Gaethje to the ground somehow. From what I've read Pimblett isn't much of takedown artist, but there are always other ways for the fight to go to the mat, such as Gaethje slipping after a head kick, etc.

However, I suspect Gaethje will make mincemeat out of Pimblett's legs and chin, and stop him before he has a chance to work his submission game. 

I hope I'm right. 

[Bruce85]

It’s good to be back, that was a long break!

I’m picking Paddy for this one. I don’t think Gaethje is shot but it’s clear his best days are behind him and I think Paddy drops him and gets the sub. 
 

It’s been said before but both these guys being in this fight is ridiculous, either of them against Armen should have been booked but it should be an entertaining fight none the less. 
 

I like Gaethje and he’s always been a favourite of mine but I think I’d rather Paddy wins this as I really want to see Topuria shut his lights out. However, I’m not sure even if Paddy wins we even see that fight. No idea how long it will be till Topuria is back and Armen could easily ruin that if he gets a shot at Paddy. You also could insert Holloway or Charles into the title picture before Topuria is back. Lots of fun fights at the top end of the division and I think Paddy winning keeps it a bit fresher. 
 

I’ve picked O’Mally in the poll and I expect him to win and jump to the front of the line to face Yan for the belt next. Umar needs to really make a statement vs Figgy and do something spectacular if he wants the next shot. 
 

As it’s PPV over here I might try and stay awake for it! 

[Dai]

Paddy is a 1/2 favourate for this, despite everything Wand says in the write up. Gaethje is a 2/1 dog. Bookies are super sharp when it comes to odds, but not sure how they've arrived to this conclusion. I guess it's a combination of Gaethje  being over the hill, which hasn't really been evident yet, and judging from the odds again it seems like Gaethje won't have much for Paddy on the ground. 

In terms of booking a title match and challenger, it seems like Dana has gone a great job of convincing people it's a genuine title fight and Paddy is actually more than ready for it. It's not fair, but Dana has got what he's wanted from the plan. 

[Egg Shen]

this is bad, never seen anyone fall like after a weigh-in, no way he fights tomorrow.