Justin Gaethje tells Paddy Pimblett that this major mistake led to his downfall at UFC 324

The brand new interim UFC lightweight champion had some clever words for his defeated opponent.

Justin Gaethje walked away from a fight with interim gold in his possession for the second time in his profession at Saturday’s UFC 324 event.

In the primary primary event of 2026 and of the Paramount deal, Gaethje dominated Paddy Pimblett across five rounds to maintain his hopes of an undisputed crowning on MMA’s biggest stage alive.

The result marked Pimblett’s first defeat contained in the Octagon and spoiled his plans for a grudge match against champion Ilia Topuria down the road.

And he has been told that one error within the lead-up to UFC 324 played an enormous role in that setback…

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Justin Gaethje tells Paddy Pimblett his mental approach at UFC 324 was flawed

Pimblett was not short on confidence ahead of his maiden UFC title shot.

The Scouse lightweight contender predicted he would finish Gaethje inside the distance and escape relatively unscathed from the fight.

But unlike Pimblett’s TKO against Michael Chandler, which he was expecting to duplicate, it was ‘The Baddy’ himself who exited the Octagon significantly worse for wear.

Gaethje thinks his rival’s mistake was entering the cage without entertaining the chance that he could sustain that much damage.

“He was very confident, and I needed to take that early,” Gaethje said at his post-fight press conference.

“That was me not too way back, and I assume I used to be Eddie Alvarez here to show him a lesson.

“He said my face was not gonna look the identical after the fight and his would look the very same. As soon because it was over, I used to be like, ‘Have a look at your face!’

“He’s gonna learn from this. You can not have that mentality whenever you are available in here,” he continued. “He needs to just accept the worst possible consequence.

“That’s the way you perform the most effective, when the pressure’s highest. I learned that early.”

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Paddy Pimblett’s moral victory against Justin Gaethje at UFC 324

It’s protected to say that things didn’t go how Pimblett had planned and envisioned for his first title shot within the UFC.

But there was an ethical victory of sorts for ‘The Baddy’, who was capable of end one 17-year run for ‘The Highlight’.

Within the primary event of UFC 324, Pimblett became the primary to take Gaethje five rounds contained in the Octagon.

The American star had come closest to going the complete 25 minutes at UFC 300, where Holloway knocked him out with only one second remaining.

He could have been rocked just a few times, but Pimblett’s claim that ‘Scousers don’t get knocked out’ lived to fight one other day at UFC 324.