Justin Gaethje thinks he gave Paddy Pimblett a difficult but necessary reality check in the UFC 324 main event.
After Pimblett (23-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) entered Saturday’s interim lightweight title headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with the utmost confidence he would win in spectacular fashion, Gaethje (27-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) proved things would be much different in the octagon. He scored two knockdowns and bloodied “The Baddy” en route to a unanimous decision to set up a unification bout with Ilia Topuria later this year.
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Pimblett survived some scary moments against Gaethje and never showed a willingness to give up. That impressed “The Highlight,” but it was not the mindset he needed to win. Gaethje said Pimblett’s bold words came back to bite him, and unless he changed that going forward, it will happen again.
“That was his only choice, and I knew he wasn’t going to quit. He’s not a quitter and I’ve never seen him quit. I’ve never seen him give up, and luckily I found some success early,” Gaethje told MMA Junkie and other reporters post-fight at UFC 324. “I knew I would have to steal some momentum and he was very confident. The moment I stepped in there he didn’t take his eyes off me. That was me not too long ago, and I guess that was Eddie Alvarez here to teach him a lesson.
“I loved teaching him a lesson. He said my face was not going to look the same after the fight and his was going to look the exact same. As soon as it was over I was like, ‘Look at your face, motherf*cker. It does not look the same.’ He’s going to learn from this. You cannot have that mentality when you come in there. He needs to accept the worst possible outcome, and that’s how you perform the best, when the pressure is highest. I learned that early.”
Gaethje, 37, was the betting underdog against Pimblett from the time the fight was announced until they stepped into the octagon to compete. Gaethje thrives off that, he said, and knows it won’t be any different when he goes to challenge undefeated champ Topuria.
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“You’ve just got to bet on yourself and tonight I bet on me – not literally, but figuratively,” Gaethje said. “This is just what we’re doing.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 324: Justin Gaethje hopes loss humbles Paddy Pimblett
