{"id":367146,"date":"2025-12-23T17:53:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367146\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:53:18","slug":"luke-rockhold-questions-paddy-pimbletts-push-to-ufc-interim-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/367146\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Rockhold questions Paddy Pimblett’s push to UFC interim title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UFC champion Luke Rockhold has questioned Paddy Pimblett\u2019s recent push to a UFC interim lightweight title shot.<\/p>\n

At UFC 324 next month, Paddy Pimblett will go head to head<\/a> with Justin Gaethje in the main event, with the UFC interim lightweight championship on the line. The winner is expected to face Ilia Topuria, the undisputed champion, later this year, once he has dealt with his ongoing personal issues.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Paddy Pimblett pumps the brakes on ending Ilia Topuria feud after recent support: \u2018I still hate him!\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Pimblett has been on a rocket ship to the top ever since he first joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and now, he is one win away from having gold around his waist. Of course, not everyone is a big fan of \u2018The Baddy\u2019, but it\u2019s hard to deny that he has been getting better and better every time he\u2019s been in the cage.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Pimblett\u2019s showdown with Gaethje, the aforementioned Luke Rockhold had his say on the UFC wanting Paddy to be a big star.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rockhold\u2019s view on Pimblett\u2019s big title push<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re trying to do anything they can to put little Paddy into a title situation,\u201d Rockhold told Submission Radio. \u201cI\u2019m annoyed with fighters that think the interim title means anything. You see guys like Justin Gaethje and he knows it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows that none of that s\u2014 really means much to him because he wants to be the real champion. Then Paddy is talking about he\u2019s going to be champion and this and that, it\u2019s already there. It\u2019s like, \u2018that belt means something? Come on.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing anything they can to get Paddy the best matchups to be a champion and bring that love back to the UK. So I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s not my favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quotes via Bloody Elbow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC champion Luke Rockhold has questioned Paddy Pimblett\u2019s recent push to a UFC interim lightweight title shot.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-367146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367146","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=367146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}