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paddy pimblett he’ll get his first shot ufc Gold in January, but not in his desired title fight with the lightweight champion Ilya Topuria,
Pimblett will fight in the main event of UFC 324 on January 24. Justin Gulamay For interim lightweight belt.
The news, announced Thursday by UFC President Dana White, came as a surprise. It is unclear why Topuria will not defend his title in JanuaryWhen it seemed that the champion would be brought UFC’s first event on Paramount+,
Last week, Topuria claimed that the UFC had not contacted him about his next fight, and that fans will have to wait longer than expected to see the Spanish-Georgian in the cage again.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Pimblett gets his first shot at a UFC belt, while American Gaethje aims to regain the interim title he captured five years ago.
Gaethje won that version of the UFC lightweight title by stopping Tony Ferguson in May 2020, before suffering a submission loss to regular champion Khabib Nurmagomedov five months later.
This year, Gaethje threatened to retire from mixed martial arts if he did not get a title shot in his next fight, despite the 37-year-old only being on a one-fight win streak. Gaethje’s last fight came in March, when he defeated Rafael Fiziev for the second time.
Meanwhile, “Paddy the Baddy” is undefeated in the UFC at 7-0 since his debut in the promotion in 2021. Last time out, the 30-year-old dominated and stopped former Bellator champion Michael Chandler in April.
And Topuria last competed in June, knocking out former UFC champion Charles Oliveira in the first round to win the vacant lightweight title. Topuria vacated the featherweight belt in February, before regaining the 155-pound title.
Topuria, 28, and Pimblett have been feuding since 2022, when Topuria confronted the Liverpudlian over tweets he posted, which “El Matador” accused of being anti-Georgian.
Also at UFC 324, Kayla Harrison will defend the women’s bantamweight title against former teammate Amanda Nunes, who held that belt – and the featherweight strap – before retiring from MMA in 2023.
The Brazilian will emerge from retirement to challenge two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka Harrison for Team USA in the co-main event on January 24.
There are more former champions in action: Sean O’Malley, who ruled the men’s bantamweight division, faces Song Yadong; Previous men’s flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo fought Omar Nurmagomedov; And former women’s champions Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas will face each other.