Paddy Pimblett took a shot at Justin Gaethje on Tuesday due to Gaethje’s belief that he is owed a UFC lightweight title shot against Ilia Topuria.
Speaking to Jamal Niaz of JNMEDIAUK (h/t MMAJunkie.com’s Farah Hannoun), Pimblett took aim at Gaethje, saying, “I don’t ever want to say a bad word about Justin Gaethje because he’s a legend, but he’s doing interviews lately being a proper b—h, saying the UFC owe him, and he deserves it and all that. No one’s owed nothing. You fight for it. My last win, I beat someone in a better fashion, who was a higher-ranked opponent than he won in his last fight. I know he’s a legend, and obviously he’s done a lot for the company and all that, but you can’t just demand a title shot.”
Pimblett’s comments were in response to Gaethje’s appearance on the Makeshift Podcast (h/t Hannoun) back in June when he said, “They owe me a championship fight.”
Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, also told Submission Radio (h/t Hannoun) at the time that his client would consider retirement if not granted a title opportunity.
The 37-year-old Gaethje explained why he believed he deserved a title match, saying that UFC was “begging” him to face Max Holloway at UFC 300, and that he took a fight against Rafael Fiziev on short notice at UFC 313 when Dan Hooker had to withdraw due to injury.
While Gaethje lost the Holloway fight, he is 3-1 over his past four bouts since losing a fight against Charles Oliveira for the vacant UFC lightweight title in 2022.
Overall, Gaethje is 26-5 in his professional career, and he is a former interim UFC lightweight champion.
Due to his belief that he was unfairly passed over for title shots in favor of others, Gaethje told the Makeshift Podcast, “I’m not going to fight any of these motherf–kers for fun unless they pay me so much more money.”
Gaethje has not fought since beating Fiziev in March, and it remains unclear what his next step might be.
As for Pimblett, the 30-year-old Brit is in the midst of a nine-fight winning streak, and he is a perfect 7-0 in UFC.
He most recently beat Michael Chandler by technical knockout at UFC 314 in April, and he defeated the likes of King Green and Tony Ferguson before that.
Topuria, who beat Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title last year, became a two-class champion in June when he knocked out Oliveira to win the UFC lightweight title as well.
With an undefeated record of 17-0, Topuria has established himself as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in MMA, so it comes as little surprise that high-profile fighters like Gaethje and Pimblett are lining up to fight him.
While Gaethje has a long track record of success and plenty of name value, it can be argued that Pimblett vs. Topuria would be even more intriguing due to the fact that Pimblett has yet to receive a UFC title shot despite his success.
