{"id":399766,"date":"2026-01-10T04:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399766\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T04:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:20:07","slug":"justin-gaethje-on-his-last-run-at-ufc-324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399766\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje On His \u2018Last Run\u2019 At UFC 324"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Justin Gaethje has been one of the best lightweight fighters in the world over the past eight years, but his days as a top contender are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/11\/24447338\/top-ranked-ufc-contender-honors-amazing-career-justin-gaethje-enjoy-your-retirement-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">coming to an end<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Later this month, Gaethje will once again try to cash in on a UFC title shot when he meets red-hot contender Paddy Pimblett 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> on Jan. 24 from Las Vegas, Nevada. The matchup will be for the interim UFC lightweight title as current 155-pound champion, Ilia Topuria, is taking a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/406027\/ilia-topuria-announces-break-from-fighting-i-dont-want-to-hold-up-the-division\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">brief hiatus from fighting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While Gaethje already won interim gold when he knocked off Tony Ferguson back in 2020 this is still another opportunity to lock down a shot at the undisputed belt. If Gaethje is able to defeat Pimblett and claim the interim title then he would set up a fight with Topuria later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Gaethje is 0-2 when it comes to fighting for undisputed UFC gold so this current run is expected to be his last. The 37-year-old veteran even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/6\/13\/24448513\/justin-gaethje-is-done-fighting-for-fun-ufc-owes-me-a-championship-fight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threatened to retire<\/a> if he didn\u2019t get a title shot in his next fight. Fight fans can\u2019t blame Gaethje for trying to push for one last run given his age, activity over the past decade, and the amount of damage he has absorbed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Trevor Wittman, who has coached Gaethje for a very long time, confirmed that UFC 324 will be Gaethje\u2019s last run at UFC glory. After that, \u201cHighlight\u201d will likely step away to worry about his family and health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m not afraid to speak it out loud &#8211; this is our last run. If we don\u2019t win this fight, we\u2019re not going on, we\u2019re not going to go out there and be a gatekeeper and look at money fights and like that. Justin would fight over and over, but he knows he\u2019s got to be there for family, he\u2019s got to be smart and take care of his health\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For more UFC 324 fight card news and coverage 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":"Justin Gaethje has been one of the best lightweight fighters in the world over the past eight years,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-399766","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-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399766","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=399766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}