Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) faces Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) for the interim lightweight title in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 324 (Paramount+) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Pimblett has mentioned plans to retire Gaethje with a win and pointed to Poirier’s final fight against BMF champion Max Holloway at UFC 318 as an example.
“I look at Dustin Poirier as an example. He came out and said, ‘I’m going to have this retirement fight,’ and then he looked like a piece of shit,” Pimblett said in an interview with TNT Fight Sports. “They beat his head for five rounds, he looked like shit, and they did all this big shit (on him beforehand).
“If you’re going to retire, you just have to do it. You don’t want to tell everyone. He put too many expectations on his shoulders and he got cheated in his own backyard; it kind of made him look stupid.”
Gaethje warns Pimblett not to get too confident.
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“He’s here disrespecting legends like Dustin Poirier,” Gaethje said during Thursday’s UFC 324 pre-fight press conference. “I’m going to walk this damned Englishman on Saturday: look.”
Poirier chose Gaethje to beat Pimblett, which influenced his comments.
“Dustin never had a nice word to say about me,” Pimblett said. “I was honest and said it looked like shit against (Holloway). ‘Damn, stop crying.’
“You’d look like shit against Holloway, too,” Gaethje said.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Justin Gaethje criticizes Paddy Pimblett for disrespecting Dustin Poirier