Justin Gaethje has seen it all in his 14-year fighting career, and after beating Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324, he can tell his opponent still has a lot to learn.
After capturing his 10th UFC Fight of the Night bonus following his win over Pimblett in Saturday’s main event in Las Vegas, Gaethje spoke to reporters at the evening’s post-fight press conference where he explained how he kept his composure in a grueling five-round fight and what he thinks Pimblett can take away from the experience.
“I’ve done it too many times to try to think that it’s over or he’s quitting,” Gaethje said when asked if he felt that Pimblett was finished at any point in the fight. “I could feel it, this guy was trying to hurt me the whole time and if I took my foot off the pedal for a second, he was on my ass and he did a good job up until the last second. I really wanted to finish him, but I loved teaching him a lesson.
“He said my face was not going to look the same after the fight and his would look the exact same. So as soon as it was over, I was like, ‘Well, look at your face, motherf*cker. It does not look the same.’ And he’s going to learn from this. You cannot have that mentality when you come in there. He needs to accept the worst possible outcome and that’s how you perform the best, when the pressure’s the highest and I learned that early and it’s such a crazy sport. Anything can happen at any moment, you’ve just got to bet on yourself and tonight I bet on me—not literally, but figuratively—and that’s just what we’re doing.”
Despite the tense buildup, Gaethje and Pimblett were nothing but respectful and complimentary to one another in the immediate aftermath of their headlining bout that saw Gaethje capture an interim lightweight championship.
That sentiment extended to the post-fight presser, with Gaethje expressing confidence that this won’t be the last time Pimblett competes for a UFC title.
“Yeah, you have to learn these lessons,” Gaethje said. “His mindset going into that fight was not good. You cannot do that like this. False confidence is terrible. It’s terrible, it will kill you every time and that’s what he had. Specifically saying this was going to be the same exact fight as [Michael] Chandler was crazy and I was like, ‘Yes. Thank God he’s thinking like this.’
“I said it on the press conference, I love everything that’s coming out of his mouth, because you cannot approach this sport like that and he’ll learn. He’s really good. He’s got balls of steel, can’t get put to sleep, obviously, I smoked him. I can’t wait to watch it, but I told him after, ‘Stay in it. Stay on it. You’re right where I was not too long ago.’ Seven years ago as a matter of fact and he’ll be there soon.”
Gaethje is referring to the only losing streak of his career, when he was knocked out by Eddie Alvarez at UFC 218 in December 2017 and then finished by strikes again by Dustin Poirier four months later. He’s won 9 of his past 12 fights since then, with his only losses coming in title fights (including a “BMF” belt loss to Max Holloway).
A titleholder once again, Gaethje reflected on how he knew Pimblett would be ready to stand toe-to-toe with him for five rounds.
“Yeah, I did,” Gaethje said. “That was his only choice and I knew he wasn’t going to quit. He’s not a quitter. I’ve never seen him quit, never seen him give up. And luckily I found some success early. I was going to have to steal some momentum and he was very confident and I had to take that early. The moment I stepped in there, he didn’t take his eyes off me, that was me not too long ago, and I guess I was Eddie Alvarez here to teach him a lesson. Same thing he did to me.”
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