{"id":23257,"date":"2025-07-26T09:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23257\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T09:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:28:08","slug":"paddy-pimblett-hails-legend-justin-gaethje-as-he-snubs-potential-opponent-for-next-ufc-bout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23257\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett hails \u2018legend\u2019 Justin Gaethje as he snubs potential opponent for next UFC bout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paddy Pimblett is taking no prisoners when it comes to calling out his rumoured opponents.<\/p>\n

While a big clash against Ilia Topuria<\/a> is the aim for Pimblett<\/a>, he will need to get through another ranked opponent to land his title shot.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Baddy\u2019 has proved the doubters wrong since his excellent stoppage of Michael Chandler at UFC<\/a> 314 last April.<\/p>\n

\"PaddyPhoto by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/p>\n

No fight is confirmed yet, even if Dricus Du Plessis started a rumour of an August Paddy fight<\/a>, it seems the aim is an Autumn bout before the Topuria clash.<\/p>\n

Paddy Pimblett hails Justin Gaethje as legend but blasts Arman Tsarukyan <\/p>\n

Matching the 30-year-old has clearly not proven tricky, as two lightweights are lined up and ready to step in the Octagon.<\/p>\n

Justin Gaethje and Arman Tsarukyan are the names touted to square off with the scouser, but to say the popular star is not fond of the latter fighter is an understatement.<\/p>\n

Speaking to One on One MMA, he said: \u201cI\u2019d fight anyone, as you know I\u2019m not a- \u2013 -d. Arman is a very good fighter, but no one cares about him, people just look at him and think you s- -t yourself to fighting Islam.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk a big game but don\u2019t back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It is clear that the Next Generation fighter doesn\u2019t rate Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s training partner Tsarukyan<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t fought since last year.<\/p>\n

Gaethje, on the other hand, has all the respect of the prospect.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Justin Gaethje is a f- \u2013 -ing banger, everyone knows if you are fighting Gaethje you are going to have a fight,\u201d Pimblett explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know he is a legend, and Arman isn\u2019t, so I\u2019d like to fight another legend in Justin Gaethje.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Gaethje would be \u2018upset\u2019 if the UFC asked him to fight Paddy Pimblett<\/p>\n

While \u2018The Highlight\u2019 may be the route Dana White\u2019s promotion wants to take, it\u2019s safe to say the American fighter himself is not pleased with a potential Paddy fight.<\/p>\n

In an interview with MMA Fighting, he revealed the reasons against fighting the rising mixed martial artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not (fighting Paddy Pimblett). If that\u2019s the route that they want me to take, then I don\u2019t believe that they need me anymore,\u201d Gaethje said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that sounds petty or whatever, but I\u2019m No. 3, I\u2019m 3-1 in my last four, the champion (Islam Makhachev) was calling to fight me, and he vacated.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to get put in the same position and fight for my spot, then I\u2019m going to be upset about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 14-year professional bounced back from his now iconic knockout loss to Max Holloway with a decision win against Rafael Fiziev in March.<\/p>\n

Now it seems the 36-year-old is ready to take on the best opposition out there in the form of the big punching Spaniard, a challenge most MMA competitors would not run towards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett is taking no prisoners when it comes to calling out his rumoured opponents. While a big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[17501,64,63,786,8944,785,17498,85,787],"class_list":["post-23257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-arman-tsarukyan","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-mma","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}