UFC 324: Gaethje vs Pimblett - Jan 24 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

OK, long post ahead.

Watched most of this last weekend but had a lot going on this week. Finally caught up on everything from the undercard now. Bit of a mixed bag but the main event ultimately delivered.

Justin Gaethje got it done then. There was always gonna be pros and cons whatever the result here and I can’t deny I’m slightly disappointed that chances are we probably won’t ever see Ilia Topuria flatten Paddy. But on the plus side, yeah, we got to see Paddy lose and it’s nice to see Gaethje in this position right at the end of his career. Even if it is all inevitably leading to him almost certainly getting waffled by Topuria. A lot was made this last week of Gaethje airing his gripes about fighter pay. Reading between the lines I think it’s clear now that he was stalling renegotiating his contract until after this Paddy fight. That gamble has paid off and hopefully the fact he’s now interim champ will mean he can squeeze a bit more out of the UFC now. He deserves every fucking penny he can get after the wars he’s put on for them over the years. Whether he gets it or not who knows? But he’s obviously in a better position now to try to get more than if he’d have lost this fight.

Fight itself was a lot of fun to watch. I’ve seen mixed responses to it. A lot of people have been critical of the sloppiness and lack of technique. And that’s coming from actual fighters in some cases. I saw Josh Barnett wasn’t blown away. I get it to an extent. But in the end, we watch this shit for entertainment and I can’t say it wasn’t wildly entertaining. Very satisfying seeing Gaethje knocking Paddy around the Octagon, flooring him and making him pay repeatedly for leaving that chin hanging out there.

Good stuff. He needed knocking down a few pegs. The eye pokes were bad though, got to admit. And it very well might have changed the course of the round. But fuck it. I don’t wish the man blind but, since there appears to be no lasting damage, sod it. Call it payback for the Jared Gordon robbery. And at the end of the day, I saw so much shit in the build up to the fight about how Paddy was gonna basically walk through Gaethje, well he didn’t did he? And that wasn’t all down to the eye pokes. He was getting his shit rocked way before that. Even the likes of Luke Thomas were talking like Paddy’s grappling was gonna be some overwhelming thing for Gaethje. Like he’s a Scouse Khabib or something. He’s always kind of had that thing of being good at Jiu-Jitsu but not great at actually taking guys down. Luke Thomas was saying after the fight on Morning Kombat that Paddy’s gone 4/18 on takedown attempts overall in the UFC! 4 successes, 18 failures and people were talking like he was Alexander Karelin in the 90s 🤣 I thought he could win but I don’t think he was ever likely to just steamroll Gaethje with grappling like some were making out.

To the surprise of no-one, some big names took pleasure in seeing Paddy take the L. Try to imagine Topuria calling someone a “little sausage”…

But of them all, I think Tsarukyan summed it up best.

Nailed it for me. I don’t care if I sound like a hater. Paddy’s rise to the interim title shot was a full on smoke and mirrors show. Built on favourable matchmaking and them cherry picking faded - or in Ferguson’s case, outright shot to bits - names and rankings shenanigans with him magically moving up for doing nothing etc. I saw people arguing that he deserved to be there because he was ranked but he was only ranked because they manufactured it that way. I think I said it before but he never beat one Top 10 guy yet was somehow ranked #5. It was complete bollocks and this is the result. And you know what? Despite the fact he’d done nothing to warrant being ranked #5 before this fight and despite now losing to Gaethje, Paddy’s somehow still kept his #5 spot in the rankings? So he moves up for doing fuck all but when he loses he doesn’t move down? It’s no news flash but the UFC rankings are utterly meaningless.

A lot of the talk I’ve seen since Saturday has been about Paddy’s toughness and chin. Fair enough. He’s definitely durable. We talked about it in this very thread before the fight even happened. He’s always had a solid chin. But the amount of talk about that I’ve seen this week, I mean, it’s obviously good to be able to take a dig if you need to but “he’s so tough/has a good chin” isn’t really something you wanna become known for is it? That talk generally means you took a beating. Keep seeing stuff about how this fight ‘proved Paddy’s at the elite level’ but I think it showed the opposite. Let’s face it, this was a 37 year old Gaethje who’s talking retirement and at the tail end of a career full of brutal wars. And Paddy couldn’t beat him. This talk about ‘Paddy’s only 31, he’ll come back better’, I’m not convinced he will. He’s already nearly 30 fights into his career, turned pro in 2012. And he still throws punches like a wally and the same bad habits he had defensively years ago are still there now. If he hasn’t corrected that stuff over the course of a 13 year career, why should we assume he’ll get significantly better this deep in the game?

As for what’s next? It’s gonna be Topuria vs Gaethje isn’t it? Kind of has to be now Gaethje’s got the interim strap. So fuck Arman Tsarukyan, I guess. The White House card seems to line up timing-wise for Topuria vs Gaethje. That would allow Gaethje time to rest up and get a full training camp in, plus I’m sure Topuria was talking about possibly fighting around June. Problem is, Gaethje is almost definitely getting ironed out in that one. Do they really wanna sacrifice the American on the fucking White House lawn? When it comes to Paddy, it’s a no brainer what’s next for me. I think you pretty much have to do Pimblett vs Hooker. They’ve been going back and forth lately and both have made some really questionable and shitty comments to each other. Needs settling. I’d make that fight next regardless of the result of Hooker vs Saint Denis tomorrow night in Sydney.

Wasn’t blown away by Sean O’Malley in the co-main. I speculated when he lost to Merab for the second time that going 0-2 to Merab might be a real head fuck for him to bounce back from and this showing kind of made me believe that even more. He made such a song and dance about changing his whole lifestyle after the first loss at the Sphere - gave up weed, gave up wanking etc - only to lose even more decisively in the rematch. That had to mess with him psychologically. He got the job done here but it wasn’t the kind of performance that’s gonna get people clamouring for him to get a title shot. I still wouldn’t be surprised if they gave it him though just because he seems to be a favourite of management and we all know the UFC love a rematch. Yan vs O’Malley 2 feels like a fight they’ll be all over now. But I saw a quote from Yan the other day and he seems to think the UFC are already setting the wheels on motion for him to defend the belt in a trilogy decider with Merab next. We’ll see. Song’s kind of floundering though. Still young but I just don’t see him ever getting over that hump. Feels like we’ve been waiting for him to ‘arrive’ for years now and he just never seems able to level up. Wouldn’t mind seeing Yan vs Merab 3 and maybe O’Malley vs Umar or Sandhagen.

Waldo wins again. Sad to say it but Derrick Lewis couldn’t have looked more done here. Looked slower than ever, more disinterested than he has in forever and more vulnerable than I remember. He is 40, it’s been a long career and he’s never seemed that arsed or fully committed at the best of times. But it was still sad to see him plop down from what looked like a pretty nothing punch at the end. I’m still not convinced Waldo’s even that good and I’m not on board with the recent love-in but he genuinely might end up challenging for the title, or at least an interim, this year just because the rest of the top ranked guys in the division are apparently too shite to stop him getting there.

Really wasn’t a fan of the Natalia Silva vs Rose Namajunas fight. Fuck me it was like pulling teeth watching it. I’d like to blame it all on Namajunas because she’s bored me shitless for years now but Silva wasn’t much better really. I’m not even sure she should’ve got the decision but admittedly I zoned out by about halfway through the second round and wasn’t exactly scoring it properly. Disappointing stuff from Silva. She could’ve really done with a dominant or decisive win here to really make a claim for the next title shot. She might still get it anyway but this really didn’t set the world alight. Not like I went in expecting a barnburner either and it still managed to disappoint.

Thought Jean Silva vs Arnold Allen was a cracking fight. Perfect way to kick off the main card. Wasn’t sure how Silva would look here because Allen is a bit of a different style to the guys Silva’s been facing to this point. But it turned out to be another typically fun scrap. Silva just seems to have a knack for bringing out the wackiness in his fights. This was barmy…

What the fuck? 🤣 Bit of a dick move from Silva really but Allen actually seemed to find it amusing himself. They even had a nice little exchange about it on Twitter with Allen congratulating Silva on the win but then adding “I am not a surfboard” at the end. Thought Allen looked pretty good all things considered with the long layoff and shoulder injury and stuff. But I liked this performance from Silva a lot. Very encouraging coming off that Diego Lopes loss. This was exactly the kind of rebound he needed and Allen is definitely Silva’s best career win to date. He’s moved up to #6 in the Featherweight rankings now and, looking at the names above him, I’d love to see him against Yair Rodriguez next. I don’t really get why Yair’s still ranked #3 anyway, fucker barely fights and he’s lost two of his last three. #3 ranking? He needs to defend that ranking or lose it. Sick of established names just sitting on their ranking while active fighters stagnate. Can’t see him wanting any of Jean though. Yair probably fully believes he’s next in line for another title shot.

Umar vs Figgy never caught fire. It wasn’t as bad as the Silva vs Namajunas fight but Umar really could’ve done with making a statement here and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for it against an old battle worn Figgy, but it was a bit of a bare minimum performance. Not bad but it just felt like he could’ve turned it up a couple of notches but kind of just coasted. Bit of a frustrating one. Figgy had a couple of brief moments but overall he looks just about finished to me at this point. It was never gonna be an easy or straightforward match for him style-wise but this is also coming off that agonisingly flat performance against Montel Jackson in Brazil. So this is two bad performances from him in a row. Combine that with him being 38 now, having a bunch of miles on him, all those hard weight cuts when he was at Flyweight etc. It all adds up. The fact he moved up to Bantamweight and now he’s missed weight at 135 here obviously isn’t a good sign either. Umar vs O’Malley or maybe Aiemann Zahabi next maybe?

Ateba Gautier got another win but finally got taken the distance by an awkward Pulyaev and I think that might be a positive in the long run, providing he has the right attitude to learn from it. It’s the classic case of the knockout puncher finally coming up against an opponent who doesn’t just crumble under the initial onslaught. It was looking like another routine clobbering for Gautier when he decked Pulyaev in the first 30 seconds or so. But Pulyaev proved tougher and more game than the ham and eggers Gautier had been squashing. Not a great look for Gautier but it’s valuable experience under the bright lights. A few quick knockover jobs are a good way to introduce yourself on the big stage but he definitely needs cage time. Some weaknesses were exposed here and he’s got work to do but it’s another win in the books regardless.

On 1/26/2026 at 10:14 AM, Dai said:

Gautier's hype should be considerably less after that performance, which may be a good thing. 

Yeah I had a feeling that if he’d blown Pulyaev out the water like he’d done to his last few victims, he might get rushed up the ladder prematurely this year. Hopefully the matchmakers cool the jets on him after this performance. He’s still only 23, there’s no rush and this fight definitely showed he could do with more seasoning. I wouldn’t mind seeing them just keep giving him guys around this level for the rest of this year. So how he looks by the start of 2027 and then if he’s still undefeated maybe think about giving him a step up.

Nikita Krylov stopping Modestas Bukauskas was a mild surprise to me. Really felt like Krylov was kind of washed up going in, not that I ever particularly rated him anyway. But with the recent trajectories of these two, it really felt like the timing was right for Bukauskas to make a bit of a statement here. He didn’t look much good though. He was losing on the cards anyway but him getting chinned with seconds to go in the fight kind of felt right. Sounds harsh but he didn’t really deserve to go the distance after a dogshit performance like that. Had its moments in spells but I wasn’t a fan of this fight really.

Another fight that played out completely differently than I expected, Alex Perez twatting Charles Johnson all over the shop for the early finish wasn’t how I saw that fight going at all.

Feel bad for Johnson but it seems like he’s destined to be another one of those fighters who just has a weird up and down career. Knocks out Joshua Van, stops Lone’er Kavanagh and hands him his first defeat. Then gets smashed in a round by wildly inconsistent Perez. Kind of like his fellow Johnson (Michael) in that it seems like he wins fights you think he should lose and loses fights you think he should win. Although the big cloud over this fight is that Perez missed weight. That should be an asterisk but you know it’s gonna be forgotten quick. Shitty break for Johnson. The matchmakers already seemed reluctant to move him up the card for whatever reason, this loss won’t have done him any favours in that regard either. Perez is an idiot though. He would’ve bagged himself the new $25K bonus for getting the finish plus a potential $100K POTN bonus and he pissed it up the wall by coming in heavy at the weigh in.

Yeah, seeing shithead Josh Hokit win was arse. The thing is, it pains me to say it but he actually doesn’t look a bad fighter for the level he’s currently at. I know the bar is low with the Heavyweights but he’s pretty quick for the weight class and he’s not as much of a plodder as most of them, which makes him instantly more watchable than a big old chunk of the division. In the cage anyway. He’s absolutely insufferable whenever he gets anywhere near a microphone. His post-fight interview here was fucking rotten and I’d like to say I’m baffled that so many seem to actually find his schtick entertaining but I’m not surprised these days. I cringed through the whole thing. Really could’ve done without Rogan and Cormier cackling like schoolgirls about it as well. Rogan keep going “Hokit is so entertaining, not just in the cage but on the microphone” and “He knows what to do, you’ve got to stand out”. Why does “standing out” have to mean desperately trying to be edgy though? It’s low effort, no imagination, no creativity cheap shite that divs who are actually dullards in reality have to resort to in lieu of anything resembling actual real charisma. Anyone can go out there and spout off silly bollocks and bigoted crap. If that’s the only way you can “stand out” you’re a fucking loser.

Ty Miller had an explosive debut, smacking Adam Fugitt about for the first round finish to kick off the prelims. Looked decent enough I guess but it was only Adam Fugitt so it doesn’t mean much. Nice debut though.

 

That’s that. Not the best show to usher in the Paramount era and some of the shit that went down going into this card like the Harrison vs Nunes cancellation, a couple of fighters missing weight, another possible betting scandal etc was far from ideal. I suppose it was typical of today’s UFC though so Paramount might as well get a taste of what they paid $7 billion for right out the gate, right? Main event was a fun though and kind of saved the show.