{"id":433335,"date":"2026-01-24T00:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433335\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:38:08","slug":"israel-adesanya-wants-to-see-paddy-pimblett-shine-in-deep-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/433335\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya wants to see Paddy Pimblett shine in deep waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel Adesanya<\/a> can relate to Paddy Pimblett<\/a>‘s current position.<\/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 Saturday’s UFC 324 (Paramount+<\/a>) headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

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“I think this is Paddy’s biggest challenge yet,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel<\/a>. “Perfect opponent, perfect fight for them \u2013 you know, old dog-new dog.”<\/p>\n

Adesanya recalls being unbeaten in the octagon and people questioning his readiness for his first title opportunity. He wound up outlasting Kelvin Gastelum in an all-out war at UFC 236 \u2013 a fight that was later inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Gaethje has to also be careful because Paddy hits hard, but Gaethje can eat them,” Adesanya said. “Look, there’s a reason Paddy is the favorite in this fight. I’m just going to follow the script. Just smart money. I say Paddy in this fight. I just think it’s going to be five rounds.<\/p>\n

“Well, Gaethje can go five rounds, we know. Paddy said people haven’t seen him in deep waters and he says that’s where he comes alive, so I want to see it. Show them who you are. He’s right: This is his first interim title shot, just like mine. People thought I was going to drown, and I showed them that’s where I come alive. So I believe it. I want to see it. But again, there’s only one man who can make it an early night for Paddy, and that’s Gaethje.”<\/p>\n

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Pimblett is the betting favorite going into the fight and former UFC middleweight champion Adesanya sees him as the safer pick.<\/p>\n

“As much as I want to lean toward Gaethje because we’re in the same position, I’m just going to stick with the script in this fight and I’m going to go with Paddy Pimblett by decision \u2013 or submission,” Adesanya said. “He likes to jump on people’s backs. I think submission.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Israel Adesanya: Paddy Pimblett submits Justin Gaethje at UFC 324<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya can relate to Paddy Pimblett‘s current position. Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) meets Justin Gaethje (26-5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,54075,8944,94034,785,17498,85,787],"class_list":["post-433335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-israel-adesanya","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-kelvin-gastelum","tag-mma","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433335","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=433335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}