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Paddy Pimblett is ready to go to war with Justin Gaethje.
Stepping into the main event spotlight for the first time, Pimblett will meet ‘The Highlight’ in the UFC 324 headliner on January 24, the winner leaving Las Vegas as the new interim lightweight world champion.
Looking ahead to their highly anticipated clash, Pimblett is hoping to have the first knockdown drag-out brawl of his career — if the fight gets that far.
“I’d love to have a scrap with him. In all my years of fighting, including my amateur fights, 35 fights, I’ve never really had a war, so it’d be nice to finally get one with the king of them,” Pimblett told MMA Junkie. “But I don’t think it’ll get that far. I think I’ll finish him. Once we’re down, he’s not getting back up. I know he’s a very good scrambler, he’s got very good wrestling, but people underestimate my wrestling and underestimate my scrambling. People think I can’t wrestle, which makes me laugh.”
No one thought I was going to take Michael Chandler down and I dropped him on his head,” Pimblett continued. “We’ll just see what happens. I’m not even planning on taking him down. I want to knock him out. I’m going to come out and strike with him. People are calling it a grappler versus striker fight, but it’s not.
“There is a very big gulf in class when it comes to grappling, but there’s not much of a gulf in class when it comes to striking. Everyone thinks he’s just going to pick me apart on the feet. I’m going to show everyone the difference between a striker with boxing and leg kicks and an MMA striker, because that’s what I am.”
Pimblett goes into the contest with an unblemished 7-0 record under the UFC banner, including a decisive third-round TKO victory over Michael Chandler in his last outing.
Meanwhile, Gaethje has won three of his last four — a run comprised of two wins against Rafael Fiziev and a highlight-reel head-kick KO against Dustin Poirier at UFC 291.
