Paddy Pimblett wants to run it back with Justin Gaethje.
One week removed from his decision loss to Gaethje (27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in the main event of UFC 324, Pimblett (23-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) has been reflecting on the fight. “The Baddy” gave credit to Gaethje, who became the first fighter in company history to win a UFC interim title, and said he will be cheering on “The Highlight” if and when he faces Ilia Topuria (17–0 MMA, 9–0 UFC) in a title unification bout.
“Congrats to Justin Gaethje,” Pimblett said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “I did say before the fight ‘I want the best version of Justin Gaethje’ and that Justin Gaethje turned up, so hats off to him. I hope he wins the undisputed title off Ilia and hopefully we can run it back, even though I don’t think he’s got too many fights left. Hopefully we can run it back in the future (because) there is a couple of things in that fight (that) pissed me off, you know?”
The loss to Gaethje was the first defeat of Pimblett’s UFC career, and the first time he had tasted defeat since losing against Soren Bak at Cage Warriors 96 back in 2018. While he is hurting after the setback, he acknowledges that his chances of getting another shot at beating Gaethje are slim.
“We get on with it,” the Liverpudlian said. “It’s done now. There’s nothing we can do, there’s nothing we can go back and change. I just hope that in the future he can step up and have a rematch with me, but it’s one of (those things). I know he’s on the arse-end of his career, so if he just end up just fighting Ilia and fighting Max (Holloway) and retiring, it’s one of them (things). I’ll have learned a lot from losing that fight, so we crack on.”
