Justin Gaethje has shared the octagon with the best lightweights of his generation and there are two names in particular with whom he wants to run it back.
A glance at Gaethje’s fight record produces a who’s who of the best ever to compete at 155 pounds, names like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Edson Barboza, Charles Oliveira, and Max Holloway. It’s those last two names that particularly stick with Gaethje as he heads into a UFC 324 interim title clash with Paddy Pimblett this Saturday and considers what could be the last few octagon appearances of his decorated career.
In an interview with ESPN MMA, Gaethje explained why he’s eager to rematch Oliveira and Holloway – who themselves meet in a rematch in the main event of UFC 326 for Holloway’s “BMF” championship on on March 7—and make up for past mistakes.
“Honestly, the winner of the BMF belt because those two guys, and it sucks to make excuses, but those are the only two guys that have ever got me not at my best, for two different reasons,” Gaethje said. “I talked about being in a bike crash 18 days before the Oliveira fight, banging my head off the road. I was compromised walking into that fight. And for Max, it was a mindset thing.”
Gaethje has mentioned the bicycle accident he was involved in less than three weeks away from a clash with then-lightweight champion Oliveira in the UFC 274 main event in 2022, calling it “a vicious crash” in which he “smoked my head off the road.” He made it to the fight, but lost via submission to Oliveira, who missed weight for the contest and vacated his belt a day before they even stepped into the cage.
As for Holloway, Gaethje wasn’t dealing with any physical problems ahead of their UFC 300 “BMF” championship clash, but he was arguably in a worse state. Holloway defeated Gaethje in an all-time classic that ended with Gaethje knocked out face-down on the canvas after engaging Holloway in a reckless exchange in the closing seconds of the final round.
Due to the hype and expectations surrounding the fan-friendly prize, it was difficult for Gaethje to lock in like usual. He entered the Holloway duel with seven UFC Fight of the Night awards to his name and he was determined to earn another, no matter the end result.
“I think the biggest mistake for me was looking at it as a spectacle fight or a fight that was for fun and not understanding or recognizing the danger that I was in,” Gaethje said. “So I didn’t get to go to my primal, competitive nature. That was a scary night. When you go to a primal place, you’re not there, you’re not retaining information. I remember his face, I’ve never seen an opponent’s face.
“So that was a big mistake for me and it happens in the preparation. There was a lot of mistakes made in my mind and I had the wrong mindset going into that fight and it was a huge mistake and that’s why I want to fight him again.”
Despite the loss, Gaethje once again won Fight of the Night (including his recent win over Rafael Fiziev, he is has now won the award nine times) and kept himself in the good graces of the UFC matchmakers and the fans. That may be one reason why he and Pimblett are being trusted to headline the UFC’s first event of 2026—and its first under the newly signed, multi-billion dollar Paramount partnership.
Gaethje and Pimblett being granted the interim lightweight championship spots over Arman Tsarukyan has been a point of contention in the MMA community, but Gaethje thinks the UFC knows what its doing.
“It just shows that the UFC trusts me to put me in these positions,” Gaethje said. “Arman’s not here for a reason. I’ve never pulled out from a fight. I should knock on wood because, you know, but I feel great right now. The weight cut sucks, there’s no way around that, but I have a great team around me.”
Going into the Pimblett fight, the 37-year-old Gaethje appears to be in fine form, and if anyone is exiting T-Mobile Arena the worse for wear, it will be “The Baddy.”
“It has not been difficult at all because ultimately I’m never thinking in there,” Gaethje said. “It’s preparations, it’s how I prepare for these fights. My sparring partners know that’s how I fight. I don’t have the intentions to hurt somebody when I’m sparring in practice and then I get to flip that switch when it comes to fighting. But I’ve always trained the same.
“Ultimately, it’s all cardio. I’m trying to get them tired. When they’re tired, I can do anything I want to them, so that’s ultimately where I’m trying to get this fight. That’s where I got the Fiziev fight, the Chandler fight, and fortunately for them it was a three-round fight because if it was a five-round fight then I would have hurt them badly. I really want to get this kid specifically to those rounds and I specifically want to hurt this kid badly. … I’ve been telling myself he’s going to hurt me so that I can go to the most primal place that I can and when I go to that place, I’m one of the most dangerous in the world.”
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Hope you all had a chance to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
UFC 324 fight week is upon us. It’s been great to get a break from the usual hustle and bustle of the UFC circus, but I’m definitely happy to be just a few days away from watching some big fights. Putting all the title talk aside, Saturday’s lineup has a ton of promise from top to bottom and the only thing that really matters is that the Paramount+ streaming service holds up. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
Stay tuned to MMA Fighting for all of our UFC 324 coverage and make sure to shout-out José Youngs on site in Las Vegas.
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