Justin Gaethje (purple gloves) fights Paddy Pimblett (blue gloves) throughout UFC 324 at T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas, US on January 25, 2026. — Reuters
LAS VEGAS: Justin Gaethje opened the Paramount period with a bang, dominating rising star Paddy Pimblett to win the interim UFC light-weight title belt at UFC 324 on Saturday.
Gaethje’s win gave him his second profession interim light-weight championship and units up an undisputed title combat towards Ilia Topuria, who stepped away final November amidst mounting private points however is anticipated to return in some unspecified time in the future in 2026.
The 37-year-old Gaethje (27-5-0) dominated the bout, touchdown 56% of his important strikes whereas succeeding on all three of his takedown makes an attempt.
Gaethje practically completed Pimblett two minutes into the primary spherical earlier than Pimblett miraculously discovered his manner out. The second spherical noticed Gaethje practically end the Englishman for a second time within the closing seconds earlier than Pimblett was narrowly saved by the bell.
Pimblett briefly discovered new life within the third, benefiting from a tiring Gaethje, however the harm he suffered all through the combat proved an excessive amount of to beat within the championship rounds as Gaethje ultimately acquired his second wind within the fourth.
The loss was Pimblett’s first in UFC since becoming a member of from his native England, snapping a nine-fight profitable streak and dropping him to 23-4-0 in his profession.
O’Malley ends shedding skid
Sean O’Malley, one of many firm’s greatest stars, ended a two-fight shedding skid within the co-main occasion with a controversial unanimous choice victory over Tune Yadong of China.
The primary two rounds each may have arguably gone to Tune, however the third spherical made all of the distinction on the playing cards as O’Malley (19-3-0) completed robust with a convincing third spherical towards Tune (22-9-1), which proved to be the distinction.
Predictably, O’Malley known as out bantamweight champion Petr Yan in his post-fight interview. O’Malley beat Yan of their first assembly at UFC 280 in October 22, however Yan’s gorgeous upset of Merab Dvalishvili with a lights-out efficiency at UFC 323 has added a brand new stage of intrigue for the potential rematch.
Waldo Cortes-Acosta of the Dominican Republic defeated Derrick Lewis by KO/TKO at 3:14 within the second spherical. Cortes-Acosta (17-2-0) dominated the 40-year-old Lewis throughout the heavyweight combat, touchdown 72% of his whole strikes, all however two of which had been important.
In the meantime, Lewis (29-13-0) solely landed 19% of his whole strike makes an attempt and had zero seconds of management time.
Natalia Silva of Brazil defeated Rose Namajunas by unanimous choice in a possible ladies’s flyweight title eliminator, though the controversial end result was met with unanimous dismay from a Vegas crowd that clearly believed Namajunas (15-8-0) did sufficient to drag off the upset towards Silva.
The efficiency marks Silva’s 14th straight victory and her eighth consecutive within the flyweight division to enhance her total document to 20-5-1. Extra importantly, it could line her up for a title shot towards Valentina Shevchenko later this 12 months.
The opening combat of the principle card noticed closely favoured Brazilian fighter Jean Silva rebound from his loss towards Diego Lopes in September, defeating England’s Arnold Allen (20-4-0) in a slugfest that was determined within the third spherical on two of three official scorecards. Silva (17-3-0) landed 55% of his strikes and succeeded on 4 of six takedown makes an attempt.
After the match, he declared himself as the subsequent competitor for the featherweight championship after subsequent Saturday’s title rematch between Lopes and champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 325 in Sydney.
Dominick Cruz, a two-time Bantamweight champion and the division’s inaugural belt holder, was introduced as the primary member of UFC’s 2026 Corridor of Fame class on the conclusion of the prelim present.
Cruz might be inducted into the “Modern Era Wing”, which honours fighters who debuted after the primary sanctioned UFC occasion underneath unified guidelines was held on November 17, 2000.
