By Jon Johnson
LAS VEGAS – He ain’t done yet.
On Thanksgiving, UFC CEO Dana White announced that Safford native No. 4-ranked Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje (27-5) will fight No. 5-ranked Lightweight contender Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett (23-3) in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas at UFC 324 on Jan. 24, 2026, for the Interim Lightweight Championship. Lightweight Champion Ilia Topuria previously announced he would be stepping away from competing for the first quarter of 2026 due to a personal issue, and to not hold up the division, an interim belt fight has been announced.
The event will be the first of the UFC’s new broadcast deal with Paramount+, with the main card starting at 9 p.m. ET, which means no pay-per-view, and anyone with a Paramount+ subscription will get the fight.
Gaethje, 37, hasn’t fought since he beat Rafael Fiziev last March, and said he would retire if he weren’t given a title shot.
Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, previously issued a stark warning that if Gaethje was forced into a grudge match with Pimblett instead of a title bout, “he will retire and he will never fight again in the UFC. Justin Gaethje never breaks his word.”
Well, with Topuria taking time off, it looks like the UFC has set up a workaround for the Interim Lightweight Championship match against Pimblett, with the winner facing Topuria for the title, possibly on the White House card in June.
Gaethje is no stranger to the “Interim” title, having won an interim championship against Tony Ferguson in 2020. He later fell to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a Lightweight Championship match later the same year.
Left out in the cold is No. 1-ranked Arman Tsarukyan (23-3), who submitted Dan Hooker (24-13) at UFC Fight Night in Qatar on Saturday, Nov. 22.
