Justin Gaethje is looking forward to someday facing Ilia Topuria—and not for the reason fans might expect.
Up next for Gaethje is bout against Paddy Pimblett for an interim lightweight title in the main event of UFC 324 on Jan. 24. The winner of the bout is expected to face Topuria, the undisputed champion, who is currently taking a personal hiatus with an aim of returning to competition after the first quarter of 2026.
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Gaethje has to beat Pimblett first, but if he pulls off that win, he’s excited about facing the undefeated Topuria and the mental challenge that matchup presents.
“Ilia, I trust in my A to B, it’s what I have to trust in,” Gaethje told ESPN Deportes when asked about potentially fighting Topuria. “I trust in my intuition. I trust in my ability to judge distance and time and just be there. This sport is so crazy. Anything can happen. There’s a reason why we’re all on the edge of our seats every fight because anything can happen at any moment. So again, it comes down to not making mistakes against a guy like that.
“Not eating his right hand. Not walking into his right hand. His left hook, his 2-3 is one of the best combinations I’ve seen in this sport, so it’s a beautiful challenge and I love how scared I’ll be.”
Despite Gaethje’s popularity and reputation for action-packed fights, and Pimblett’s 7-0 UFC record, the decision to have the fighters vie for an interim title has received some criticism. Gaethje is just 4-3 in his past seven fights, while Pimblett is currently No. 5 in the official rankings.
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Still, the two typically generate plenty of buzz no matter who they’re fighting and Gaethje hopes fans understand that at the end of the day, it’s just business.
“You’re never going to make everybody happy,” Gaethje said. “What it does, and I’m thankful for the UFC, and what fans should understand is whenever we fight for an interim championship, it’s everything a championship is on paper. So my contract says I’m going to get paid a certain amount to challenge for a championship, now I get paid that much. Now I get paid that for this fight and that was very important for me.
“I’m the most consistent, most exciting guy that’s ever stepped in there. Last fight was the first time I’d ever made less than my previous fight ever in my whole life and I don’t want that to happen. So I’ve got to be in these big fights.”
Even if Gaethje is victorious, he’s not assuming the UFC has a rock-solid plan when it comes to who Topuria defends against next, especially since it’s still unclear when the reigning lightweight champion might actually return to action. There’s also the matter of beating Pimblett, who Gaethje understands has been on a collision course with Topuria for some time due to a longstanding rivalry.
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He won’t roll over for Pimblett, so Gaethje warns that anyone locked into that potential grudge match is going to be disappointed.
“There’s many things that could happen,” Gaethje said. “We’ve seen an interim champion just be promoted to a champion, [Tom] Aspinall. Mackenzie Dern was going to fight for an interim and then boom, they made it a championship once [Zhang] Weili vacated. But all these things are out of my control.
“I have to win, I’m going to have to spoil, I know that the fans probably want Paddy and Ilia like they wanted Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and I’m going to f*ck it up. That’s my job.”
