Ultimate Fighting Championship fan-favorite Justin
Gaethje is on a gold-or-bust mission.
Former interim lightweight champion Gaethje has amassed a litany of
post-fight bonuses in his storied UFC tenure thus far, accounting
for 14 additional checks across his 14 appearances. He also claimed
the symbolic “BMF” title in 2023, wrecking Dustin
Poirier in their rematch to claim the silver belt. He has not,
however, achieved his goal of an undisputed championship. Given
current 155-pound king Ilia
Topuria’s struggles outside the cage, there is the potential
for Gaethje’s next collision—against Paddy
Pimblett for the interim crown—to have even greater stakes.
Gaethje vs. Pimblett will headline the promotion’s first event,
UFC 324, on the Paramount+ service to kick off
the seven-year deal the UFC made with Paramount. The 37-year-old
has hinted at retiring in the past, suggesting that he does not
have many fights left in him. On Friday, Gaethje’s coach, Trevor
Wittman, added to that message when speaking with ESPN.
“This is our last run,” Wittman remarked to ESPN. “If we don’t win this fight, we’re not going
on…we’re not going to go out there and be a gatekeeper and look at
money fights and s–t like that. He’s a goal setter, and his
mentality…we’re in his house, and his family’s having a dinner, and
I have that ‘true talk’ and I’m talking to his family and I’m not
talking to him. The way he ends it, he’s like, ‘it’s not over,
coach.’”
Wittman continued, “That’s the key to Justin. He’s very unique. He
would fight over and over and over, but he knows he’s got to be
there for the family, he’s got to be smart and take care of his
health. But, we win this belt, my shoot-to-the-moon type of goal
would be, let’s go out there and repeat defenses. Repeat
defenses.
“Obviously, this is an interim title fight, so we’re not the champ
yet. So, we’d have to go win that belt next. I always say the key
to being a champion is one round at a time. One round at a time
gets you one fight a time, once you get to one fight a time, then
you start to get to the championship level. So, we’re not
overlooking this, but we’re honest that this gets us to a point
[where] we have that roadblock. We can’t overcome those roadblocks
no more, he’s 37 years old and we want to be smart. We’re not going
to be the guy out there trying to fight for money and trying to go
chase cash for trauma.”
“This is not a Retirement Fight”
Gaethje rebounded from a sensational, award-winning battle with
Max
Holloway on UFC 300 in 2024 by outhustling Rafael
Fiziev for a second time in March 2025. “The Highlight” is no
stranger to lengthy layoffs, as he has been out of action since
that bout, with about 10 months spanning Gaethje-Fiziev to the
upcoming Pimblett tilt. Coach Wittman noted that while it might be
Gaethje’s final path to UFC gold, this is not the kind of occasion
where Gaethje is checked out and ready to leave the sport
behind.
“This is not a retirement fight,” the vaunted coach stated. “When
it comes to retirement fights, [scoffs], I think anybody who’s
going out on a retirement fight is going to win one out of 10
times. You’re already letting go. He’s not letting go. He was just
in his position where we were…we had just knocked out Poirier, we
had a title fight. They offered the fight with Max, he didn’t want
it. Pretty much everybody around us, including myself, was like,
‘Hey, this is an opportunity for you to go out there and do your
thing from the upper echelon.’”
Throughout his 14 walks to the Octagon, “The Highlight” has served
as an event headliner in nine of those—and UFC 325 will make it 10
of 15 come Jan. 24. The bonus magnet may trail all-time leader
Charles
Oliveira’s 21, but one more would put him in a four-way tie in
the No. 4 spot with Jim Miller,
Joe
Lauzon and Poirier. Only Nate Diaz,
Donald
Cerrone and Charles
Oliveira have earned more. For Gaethje, this was always his
plan, to become the most exciting fighter where fans circle his
bout date on their calendars.
Wittman proudly said, “He’s a people fighter. His goal when he
first got with me was like…, ‘Every time I fight, when you buy a
pay-per-view or you buy a ticket to be in the arena, you’re going
to be so grateful that you bought that ticket.’ And he’s done
that.”