Paddy Pimblett has not used Justin Gaethje‘s multiple eye pokes as an excuse for his UFC 324 loss, but it’s clear the fouls were not without impact.
One week removed from his unanimous decision defeat to Gaethje in an interim lightweight title fight in Las Vegas, Pimblett (23-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) has opened up about the contest, as well as his health and desires for a future rematch against the first man to beat him in a UFC cage.
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Pimblett took heavy damage from Gaethje in the fight, getting knocked down twice and bleeding from multiple areas. His face has healed quickly, but he said his eyes are still not at 100 percent. Despite that, he expects to be back in the octagon sooner than later.
“I’m only a week out of the fight and my face is sound,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve got a little bit of bruising. The only thing that’s wrong with me is my eyeballs from the fingernails scratching my eyeballs. But we get on with it. I’ve had a nice week of chilling.
“There’s nothing wrong with me. The only thing wrong with me is I’ve got a scratched cornea or something like that, but I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow and back training. People think I’ve got to take the rest of the year off. I’m not. I’ll be fighting in the summer.”
Pimblett said he intends to return to training on Monday and said he’s “learned a lot from that fight already” against Gaethje. He did admit, however, that he’s “quite annoyed with myself and a lot of things surrounding the fight,” but did not expand on what those issues were.
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The 31-year-old expects to be a significantly improved version the next time he steps into competition, and one of his goals is to eventually earn a rematch with Gaethje. He knows that might not be the most realistic pursuit given “The Highlight” is on the tail end of his career, but there is clearly a wrong he wants to make right.
“I did say before the fight I want the best version of Justin Gaethje and that Justin Gaethje turned up,” Pimblett said. “Hat’s off to him. I hope he wins the undisputed title off Ilia (Topuria) 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 pissed me off. But we get on with it. It’s done now. Nothing we can do or go back and change. I just hope in the future he can step up and have a rematch with me.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC’s Paddy Pimblett wants Justin Gaethje rematch, plans summer return
