{"id":379009,"date":"2025-12-29T21:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/379009\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T21:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:28:08","slug":"multiple-time-ufc-title-challenger-picks-justin-gaethje-in-ufc-324-headliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/379009\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Time UFC Title Challenger Picks Justin Gaethje In UFC 324 Headliner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The former WEC featherweight king and multiple-time UFC bantamweight champion, Urijah Faber, has leaned in favour of Justin Gaethje ahead of <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/ufc-324-odds-surprise-odds-released\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 324<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gaethje takes on Paddy Pimblett for the <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/ilia-topuria-hints-at-interim-title-bout\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interim lightweight<\/a> title at UFC 324, which is set to take place on January 24th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It marks the first event of a new era for the UFC as it\u2019s the first event of the (non-PPV) Paramount Plus era. Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett will be supported by a mega fight in the women\u2019s bantamweight division when Kayla Harrison welcomes Amanda Nunes back with the belt on the line.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UFC-324-e1766863052632.jpeg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-205214 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UFC-324-e1766863052632.jpeg\" alt=\"UFC 324 poster\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Urijah Faber goes with Justin Gaethje<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Helen Yee, Faber stated:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got to go with (Justin)\u00a0Gaethje. I feel like he\u2019s the one that enjoys a knockdown, drag-out more than the other guy. Not that Paddy Pimblett doesn\u2019t love to fight, it\u2019s just Gaethje loves to actually get down and throw fist for fist, and he\u2019s also got the Division 1 wrestling to kind of negate some of the biggest skillsets of Paddy. Paddy is a very dominant grappler when it comes to submissions and being aggressive with that. I think Gaethje has the tools to keep it where he wants, and I think that\u2019s going to give him an edge\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This view is one that\u2019s opposed to a former opponent of both Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett, Tony Ferguson.\u00a0El Cucuy fought both men, and as one of only two people to do so, he knows what he\u2019s talking about. Ferguson said in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=d_YdArWvoUQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">interview<\/a> with Ariel Helwani:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaddy wins, only because Justin doesn\u2019t want another interim belt. Paddy\u2019s not bad, dude. Paddy\u2019s not bad. He\u2019s very beatable. And Gaethje is very beatable as well. But when it goes into the passion and how upsetting Justin Gaethje has always been about not getting that real title shot, and they just keep dangling it right there again. I mean, Paddy\u2019s in for a new treat, right? Paddy\u2019s the one that\u2019s never fought for a belt\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree with Faber or Ferguson? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former WEC featherweight king and multiple-time UFC bantamweight champion, Urijah Faber, has leaned in favour of Justin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-379009","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\/379009","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=379009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}