{"id":382799,"date":"2025-12-31T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382799\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:09:08","slug":"gaethje-vows-to-f-k-up-ufcs-pimblett-vs-topuria-plans-at-ufc-324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382799\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaethje vows to \u2018f\u2014k up\u2019 UFC\u2019s Pimblett vs. Topuria plans at UFC 324"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Justin Gaethje is excited to fight Paddy Pimblett for the interim lightweight title on January 24th at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/406095\/ufc-324-fight-card-start-time-date-location-gaethje-vs-pimblett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 324.<\/a> More importantly, he\u2019s excited to fight for interim lightweight title money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Gaethje hasn\u2019t fought since an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/3\/9\/24381160\/fire-fight-justin-gaethje-defeats-rafael-fiziev-again-in-awesome-striking-rematch-ufc-313\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">impressive win over Rafael Fiziev<\/a> in March, and there was some question as to whether he\u2019d ever fight again. \u201cThe Highlight\u201d made it clear that it was a title shot or bust for him, and he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/9\/24446095\/disrespected-justin-gaethje-warns-ufc-if-im-not-going-fight-for-title-going-to-hang-up-my-gloves-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">willing to retire<\/a> if he didn\u2019t get it. While championship legacy is important to Gaethje, so is the money side of things. He made it clear in a new interview with Papa Legaspi that title fight money was the only money worth fighting for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhenever we fight for an interim championship, it\u2019s everything a championship is on paper,\u201d Gaethje explained. \u201cSo my contract says I\u2019m going to get paid a certain amount to challenge for a championship. Now I get paid that for this fight. That was very important for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m the most consistent, most exciting guy that\u2019s ever stepped in there. The last fight was the first time that I\u2019ve ever made less than my previous fight ever in my whole life, and I don\u2019t want that to happen. So I\u2019ve got to be in these big fights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A \u2018normal\u2019 fight for Gaethje likely sits around the mid-six figures while a title fight earns him a couple million. With that much money at stake as his career nears its end, it\u2019s no wonder he was willing to dig his heels in and make demands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Now that the money side of things is solved, Gaethje is looking forward to winning, and f&#8211;king up people\u2019s hopes for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/410615\/paddy-pimblett-shrugs-off-ilia-topurias-supportive-words-i-still-hate-him\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paddy Pimblett vs. Ilia Topuria<\/a> superfight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m gonna have to spoil. I don\u2019t know that the UFC wants it, I know that the fans probably want Paddy and Ilia like they wanted Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov],\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m gonna f&#8211;k it up. And that\u2019s my job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje is excited to fight Paddy Pimblett for the interim lightweight title on January 24th at UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-382799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382799","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=382799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}