{"id":420751,"date":"2026-01-18T07:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420751\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T07:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T07:17:07","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-picks-paddy-pimblett-vs-justin-gaethje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420751\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski picks Paddy Pimblett vs. Justin Gaethje"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 17, 2026, 8:15 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski<\/a> is done doubting Paddy Pimblett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) meets Justin Gaethje<\/a> (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) for the interim lightweight title in the UFC 324 headliner on Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+<\/a>). The winner is expected to unify with UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many have been critical of Pimblett’s road to the UFC title, but Volkanovski admits he’s been impressed by the Englishman’s recent performances. He is picking the betting favorite to win the fight.<\/p>\n

“That’s going to be a fun fight,” Volkanovski told TNT Sports<\/a>. “I’m going to go with Paddy. There’s been a couple of times where I thought Paddy’s had big tests in front of him, and he’s passed them. He’s shown me in his last fight that he can really stick to a game plan, and he’s going to need that with Gaethje. So, I’m going to go with Paddy.”<\/p>\n

UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) has put his lightweight title aspirations aside, even though Pimblett thinks that could change<\/a> if he beats Gaethje. Volkanovski runs things back with\u00a0Diego Lopes (27-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC)\u00a0in the UFC 325 main event on Jan. 31 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 17, 2026, 8:15 p.m. ET UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is done doubting Paddy Pimblett. Pimblett (23-3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[202558,64,63,786,785,85,203779,203780,203784,204387,213550,203781,203147,213549,203139,205671,205670,206603,202561],"class_list":{"0":"post-420751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sstssportsufc","15":"tag-sstsnufc","16":"tag-tagalexander-volkanovski","17":"tag-tagilia-topuria","18":"tag-tagjustin-gaethje","19":"tag-tagmartial-arts","20":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","21":"tag-tagpaddy-pimblett","22":"tag-tagsports-news","23":"tag-tagufc","24":"tag-tagufc-324","25":"tag-tagufc-325","26":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420751","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=420751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}