Paddy Pimblett revealed a nasty injury he suffered during his five-round war with Justin Gaethje at UFC 324.
Competing for a title for the first time since debuting in the company almost five years ago, ‘The Baddy’ was on the losing end of a fight of the year contender against Gaethje. After taking a week away from the spotlight, the scouser is back to dismiss any claim that he suffered serious injury to his face, following the viral pictures that surfaced last week.
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“Everyone thought my face was a mess,” Pimblett said as he spoke out for the first time since losing at UFC 324. “Listen, I’m only a week out from the fight. My face is sound. I’ve got a little bit of bruising.”
“The only thing what’s wrong with me is my eyeballs.”
Despite some visible damage still present, the only injury Paddy Pimblett announced he had been dealing with was to his eyes.
While the loss will undoubtedly sting Pimblett, he was in high spirits a week on from the fight. The 31-year-old gave Justin Gaethje his flowers for the performance, and wished him luck unifying the titles against Ilia Topuria.
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“But, you know, we get on with it. I’ve had a nice little week of chilling. I was back in [strength and conditioning] yesterday, lifting some weights. I’ll be back into Next Gen tomorrow, Monday morning…”
“People are feeling sorry for me and this and that, but I’m great. In our sport, you can’t win every fight, you know what I mean? It’s one of them. If you don’t lose, you learn. And I’ve learned a lot from that fight already.”
“I haven’t watched it back yet. I’m still quite annoyed with myself and a lot of other things surrounding the fight. But we’ll watch it back on the channel. I’ll watch it back with everyone. We’ll put a video up watching the fight back.”
“Again, though, like I said in my post after it, congrats to Justin Gaethje. I did say before the fight, I want the best version of Justin Gaethje, and that Justin Gaethje turned up. So, hats off to him. I hope he wins the undisputed title off Ilia. And hopefully we can run it back, even though I don’t think he’s got too many fights left. Hopefully we can run it back in the future because there’s a couple of things in that fight that have p*ssed me off.”
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Pimblett then went on to claim that the only damage he is nursing following his 25-minute battle with Justin Gaethje is a potential scratched cornea.
“The one thing that has made me laugh, though, I did say before the fight, ‘I’m gonna make his face look different.’ And for a couple of days, he made my face look different,” Pimblett continued.
“As you can see now, it’s a week later. There’s nothing wrong with me. The only thing what’s up with me is like, [I’ve] probably got a scratched cornea or something like that.”
Now, Paddy Pimblett wants to recover and spend time away from the octagon, but is certain fans will see him again in the coming months.
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With the UFC setting itself up for a fun summer, Pimblett revealed mid-2026 as his ideal return timeline.
“I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow. I’ll be back training. And people think I’m going to have to take the rest of the year off. I’m not.”
“I’ll be fighting in the summer.”
Listen to Paddy Pimblett truly speak out publicly for the first time since his defeat at UFC 324 in the video below.
