Justin Gaethje has made it clear he plans to make Paddy Pimblett pay for what he sees as blatant disrespect toward a UFC legend.
Gaethje and Pimblett collide for the interim lightweight title this Saturday night when UFC 324 takes over Las Vegas, marking the promotion’s first event under its new Paramount deal. While much of Thursday’s pre-fight press conference stayed relatively calm, tensions flared the moment Gaethje addressed Pimblett’s recent comments about Dustin Poirier.
Gaethje took issue with Pimblett’s criticism of the recently retired fan favorite and accused the Liverpool native of crossing a line.
“You know, he definitely sounds overconfident,” Gaethje said at the press conference.“He’s out here disrespecting legends like Dustin Poirier.
“I’m going to dog walk this English f— on Saturday. Watch. Pimblett refused to back down and defended his remarks as honest rather than disrespectful, insisting that Poirier has never shown him any goodwill either.
“Dustin has never got a nice word to say about me,” Pimblett replied.“So I was honest and said he looked like s— against [Max] Holloway. F—ing hell, stop f—ing crying, you gang of farts.”
“You would also look like s— against Holloway,” he said.“We’ll see,” Pimblett said. “Once I beat you, I could be fighting him.”
The tension stems from Pimblett’s earlier comments about Poirier’s final fight, a five-round decision loss to Max Holloway last July. Pimblett argued that Poirier made a mistake by announcing his retirement ahead of time.
“He got his head punched in for five rounds and looked like s—,” Pimblett said in a previous interview.“If you’re going to retire, you just do it. You don’t tell everyone.
“He put too much expectation on himself and got muftied in his own backyard.Made himself look stupid.”
While Gaethje admits he usually enjoys Pimblett’s trash talk, he drew the line at attacks on fighters he believes have earned their respect.
“I love everything he’s been saying,” Gaethje said. “It fires me up. But disrespecting guys like Dustin Poirier? That’s different.”
What began as a relatively respectful buildup has now turned personal, adding another layer of intensity to an already massive main event. With the interim title on the line and emotions boiling over, Gaethje and Pimblett are set to settle everything the only way they know how, inside the Octagon at UFC 324.
