{"id":390933,"date":"2026-01-06T03:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390933\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T03:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:56:07","slug":"justin-gaethje-staph-scare-raises-ufc-324-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390933\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje staph scare raises UFC 324 concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In just 19 days (Sat., Jan. 24, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will debut on Paramount+ with <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>, headlined by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-announcements\/405965\/dana-whites-big-paramount-announcement-paddy-pimblett-vs-justin-gaethje-to-headline-ufc-324-for-interim-lightweight-title-in-las-vegas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">high-stakes Lightweight clash<\/a> between Justin Gaethje and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-mma-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 5-ranked<\/a> Paddy Pimblett inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But with fight night quickly approaching, there could be a potential speed bump in Sin City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Eagle-eyed fans have noticed a mysterious wound on Gaethje\u2019s neck, sparking concern across social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The former interim Lightweight champion has released weekly episodes of his YouTube series, The Art of Violence, over the past month. In his most recent upload, Gaethje can be seen sporting a visible mark on his neck \u2014 and fans are already speculating that it could be a staph infection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Others believe the wound could simply be mat herpes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Still, the timing is far from ideal. UFC 324 marks the promotion\u2019s first main event in the Paramount+ era, and for Gaethje, it represents what could be his final opportunity to capture undisputed UFC gold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The silver lining? Gaethje still has nearly three weeks to get healthy \u2014 and plenty of time to wipe out any infection \u2014 assuming it\u2019s staph in the first place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To see who else is fighting at UFC 324 click <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\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just 19 days (Sat., Jan. 24, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will debut on Paramount+ with UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,139445,702],"class_list":["post-390933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390933","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=390933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}