{"id":262991,"date":"2026-01-25T08:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262991\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T08:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:49:07","slug":"ufc-324-justin-gaethje-beats-paddy-pimblett-on-points-in-las-vegas-firefight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262991\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 324: Justin Gaethje beats Paddy Pimblett on points in Las Vegas firefight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: This report contains references to suicide.<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett suffered heartbreak against Justin Gaethje in his quest to claim a UFC interim title as he lost on points to the American in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Pimblett, 31, was as brave as he was bloodied<\/a> through five action-packed rounds that had both men swinging at the final bell.<\/p>\n

Gaethje rolled back the years for a vintage performance, forcing Pimblett to raise his game to a new level and fight fire with fire.<\/p>\n

Both men raised their arms at the end, but the judges rightly gave 37-year-old Gaethje the victory on all three scorecards.<\/p>\n

“Paddy is right, Scousers do not get knocked out,” Gaethje said.<\/p>\n

“My coach was definitely upset at me after the first round, but I just love this so much, it’s really hard to control myself sometimes.<\/p>\n

“I knew I had to put him on his back foot, he is very dangerous and has great timing. I had to steal his momentum and confidence.”<\/p>\n

With victory, Gaethje claimed the interim lightweight title for the second time and will now face absent champion Ilia Topuria once he returns from a personal hiatus.<\/p>\n

Pimblett applauded Gaethje as the scorecards were read out, taking his first UFC loss and fourth defeat of his career with grace.<\/p>\n

The Briton was the favourite going into the contest<\/a> and showed incredible resilience and heart, but could not control the storm of Gaethje.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to be walking away with that belt. I know how tough I am and I don’t need to prove that to anyone,” Pimblett said.<\/p>\n

“I think 48-47 was a fair scorecard. I won’t lie, he hit me with a body shot in the first round and it got me. I thought I was winning the round up to that point.<\/p>\n

“You live and you learn. I’m 31, I will be back better.”<\/p>\n

Pimblett again used his post-fight interview to shine a light on mental health issues.<\/p>\n

“In a few of my post-fight interviews before, I’ve mentioned men killing themselves. Two lads who I know have killed themselves over the last few months,” Pimblett said. <\/p>\n

“Men, speak up, don’t bottle your feelings up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: This report contains references to suicide. Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett suffered heartbreak against Justin Gaethje in his quest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-262991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}