posted by the UFC<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s interim, people are going to say, \u2018Ah, it\u2019s only interim,\u2019 this and that, but I\u2019m fighting for the world title. People said I\u2019d never be ranked. People said I\u2019d never do this, never do that. The goalposts always get moved with me. It\u2019s normal.<\/p>\n\u201cOnce I finish Gaethje, it\u2019s going to be, \u2018Oh, he was 37, he was retiring anyway, he\u2019s on his way out, he\u2019s being handed the title shot.\u2019 All this bullshit, but when I first signed with the UF,C it was, \u2018He\u2019s going to get knocked out by [Luigi] Vendramini, oh he\u2019s only beaten journeymen, Jared Gordon beat him, Jordan Leavitt\u2019s going to submit him.\u2019 Then it was, \u2018Bobby Green\u2019s going to knock him out,\u2019 and \u2018Michael Chandler\u2019s going to knock him out.\u2019 Now, it\u2019s \u2018Justin Gaethje\u2019s going to knock him out.\u2019 But once I beat him, it will be, \u2018Oh, he was old,\u2019 he\u2019s this, he\u2019s that. I\u2019m used to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think I\u2019m still the same fighter who came in and fought Vendramini back in September 2021, when I\u2019m a whole different animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pimblett has faced plenty of pushback in his UFC run. A former Cage Warriors champion, Pimblett is one of the most popular fighters in the sport, but his early UFC performances left something to be desired. Though he\u2019s undefeated in the promotion, his win over Jared Gordon in 2022 was controversial, and he\u2019s since picked up wins over Tony Ferguson, King Green, and Michael Chandler, all of which received criticism. But should Pimblett pull off what he intends to do in 2026, no one will be able to criticize him anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst ever time I\u2019ve fought in January,\u201d Pimblett said. \u201cEarliest I\u2019ve ever fought. It\u2019s going to ruin me Christmas dinner and me birthday, because I\u2019m going to be 31 three weeks before it, but it\u2019s all going to be worth it when I lift that world title above me head, and Paddy the Baddy is a world champion.<\/p>\n
\u201c2026 is going to be the biggest year of me life. I am coming for that interim title, then I\u2019ll be making it the undisputed title when I come and beat Ilia Topuria up and take the undisputed title. And little posh boy [Arman Tsarukyan] \u2014 if he manages to fight in that time, because he likes sitting out and saying he\u2019s got a sore back \u2014 if little posh boy fights in that time and keeps his ranking, I\u2019ll punch his head in as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
UFC 324 takes place on Jan. 24 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett is planning on having a 2026 for the ages. On Thanksgiving, the UFC announced that Pimblett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-314934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}