Justin Gaethje on Saturday night opened the Paramount era with a bang, dominating rising star Paddy Pimblett to win the interim UFC lightweight title by unanimous decision at UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena.
Gaethje’s win gave him his second career interim lightweight championship and sets up a unification title fight against 70kg champion Ilia Topuria, who stepped away in November last year amid mounting personal issues, but is expected to return at some point this year.
Thirty-seven-year-old Gaethje (27-5-0) largely controlled the bout, landing 56 percent of his significant strikes while succeeding on all three of his takedown attempts. He finished ahead on the judges’ scorecards 49-46, 49-46, 48-47.
Photo: AP
“You can’t have that mentality [Pimblett has] when you come in here,” Gaethje said. “He needs to accept the worst possible outcome. That’s how you perform your best, when the pressure is the highest. I learned that early. It’s such a crazy sport, so I knew it was going to happen.”
Gaethje and Pimblett waged a physical and bloody fight.
UFC CEO and President Dana White said that Pimblett was sent to a hospital, but that Gaethje refused to go.
“I wanted that belt, but there’s no other man I would rather lose to,” Pimblett said. “For me, it’s the idea of someone I’ve loved watching growing up watching the UFC. It shows why he’s a legend right there.”
The loss was Pimblett’s first in UFC since joining from his native England, snapping a nine-fight winning streak and dropping him to 23-4-0 in his career, 7-1 in the UFC. Still, the resiliency the 31-year-old showed by putting on a five-round show with the company’s most notorious bomber saved his stock from falling too far with the loss.
“I’ve been here and done this too many times to try to think that it’s over, he’s quitting,” Gaethje said. “This guy was trying to hurt me the whole time. If I took my foot off the pedal for a second, he was on my ass, and he did a good job up until the last second. I really wanted to finish him.”
Sean O’Malley, one of the company’s biggest stars, ended a two-fight losing skid in the co-main event with a controversial unanimous decision victory over bantamweight Song Yadong of China.
The first two rounds both could have arguably gone to Song, but the third round made all the difference on the cards as O’Malley (19-3-0) finished strong with a convincing third round against the 28-year-old Song (22-9-1), which proved to be the difference.
Additional reporting by AP
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